There is a ‘Nobel Prize’ for architecture; its name is the Pritzker Prize, named after Jay Pritzker (1922-1999), founder of the Hyatt Corporation and a member of one of America’s wealthiest families. Recipients of the Pritzker Prize include the Who’s Who of the architectural world, such as Tadao Ando (Japan), Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil) and Rem Koolhaas (Netherlands).

Ando took two decades from his first notable project to clinch the coveted award. Niemeyer and Koolhaas, two icons of Western modernism, had to wait more than 25 years to be anointed. So when SANAA (Sejima and Nishzawa and Associates) of Japan won the Pritzker Prize in 2010 after a mere 15 years, the news took the architecture world by storm. This is not to criticize founders Kazuyo Sejima (b. 1956) and Ryue Nishizawa (b. 1966), for they are truly world-class visionaries who have shaped the discourse of modern architecture and left an indelible mark on the built environment. From day one, SANAA had a singular vision of pushing the limits of the “less is more” maxim in architecture. Their work, as the Pritzker citation says,

“Stands in direct contrast with the bombastic and rhetorical. Instead, they seek the essential qualities of architecture that result in a much-appreciated straightforwardness, economy of means and restraint…”

Like their minimalist constructions, Sejima and Nishizawa are famous for saying very little, preferring to let their works speak for themselves. Their projects, such as the O-Museum in Nagano, Japan, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, and the New Museum of Art in New York demonstrate SANAA’s ethos of simplicity, inclusion and transparency.

Notable Works of SANAA

The Sumida Hokusai Museum, Tokyo

The life and art of the famous Japanese painter and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai is celebrated in a recently built museum designed by SANAA. The Sumida Hokusai Museum in Tokyo, which is located in the ward of the same name, is home to over 18,000 works created by Hokusai and his apprentices over 200 years ago, including the artist’s most famous work, “Under the Wave off Kanagawa.”

Grace Farms, New Canaan, Connecticut, U.S.

Grace Farms is a non-profit interdisciplinary organization dedicated to achieving peace. The eponymous building designed by SANAA is an elegant, lightweight structure of concrete, steel, glass and wood that hugs the surrounding landscape. Its single curved aluminum roof casually floats over a mixture of spaces nested under it, including a library, a court, and a pavilion.

The Rolex Learning Center, Lausanne, Switzerland

The Rolex Learning Center is a library, laboratory and research space devoted to the cultivation of knowledge through an array of methods. Spread over its single fluid space of 20,000 square meters, it provides a seamless network of services devoted to its learning mission as well as social spaces, restaurants, cafes and outdoor spaces. Clusters of small light wells generate a quiet atmosphere, softly illuminating each space under a futuristic canopy.

The Glass Pavilion at the Toleda Museum of Art, Ohio, U.S.

The Toledo Museum of Art’s Glass Pavilion is a quiet and unassuming building. It is located across the street from the neoclassical Toledo Museum of Art designed by architects Edward B. Green and Harry W. Wachter in 1912 and the bold, sculptural Center for Visual Arts by Frank O. Gehry in 1992. The Glass Pavilion is a recent addition and is SANAA’s first project in the United States. Fittingly, SANAA designed the Glass Pavilion as a new home for the Toledo museum’s extensive collection of ancient and contemporary glass and as a studio for glassblowing demonstrations and workshops. The design is made almost exclusively of glass, both inside and out. Over 360 glass panels, each approximately 8 x 13.5 feet and weighing between 1,300 and 1,500 pounds create the transparent enclosure, inviting visitors to move from one space to another. The building’s exterior appearance changes from day to night and throughout the seasons. In bright daylight, the ‘skin’ reflects the surrounding wooded environment while at night, those inside the building appear as silhouettes as the bright fires from the glass-blowing furnaces make portions of the building glow.

Osaka University of Arts, Osaka