2010 Pritzker Prize Awarded to SANAA

The <a href="http://www.pritzkerprize.com/">2010 Pritzker Prize</a> was just announced today, and the winners of this year's <a href="http://www.pritzkerprize.com/">esteemed prize</a> are Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, a Tokyo-based architecture duo called <a href="http://www.sanaa.co.jp/" target="_blank">SANAA</a>. Announced earlier today, this is the first female-male duo to win the esteemed award and we can certainly see why they took home this year's prize. Most notably known for their work on the <a href="http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&amp;upload_id=1487">New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City</a>, the Glass Pavilion of the Toledo Museum of Art, and the recent <a href="http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9197/sanaa-rolex-learning-center.html">Rolex Learning Center</a> in Lausanne, Switzerland, SANAA's buildings are subtle and understated, as well as light and transparent. While SANAA may not be as flashy or <a href="http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/03/31/jean-nouvel-named-2008-pritzker-architecture-laureate/">iconic as of their peers</a> <a href="http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/04/01/the-new-gehry-residence/">(ahemm Gehry)</a>, their works have a quiet beauty and inherent sustainability to them and are certainly worthy of the "Nobel Peace Prize" of Architecture.<img title="More..." src="../wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/wordpress/img/trans.gif" alt="" />

The distinguished and well decorated seven-member jury praised the duo's body of work "that is simultaneously delicate and powerful, precise and fluid, ingenious but not overly or overtly clever.” SANAA is more known for creating an architectural experience for the people inside the building than for those on the outside and the <a href="http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&amp;upload_id=1487" target="_blank">The New Museum of Contemporary Art</a> is a perfect example. It has simple facade of stacked boxes reaching up into the sky, but on the interior provides a perfect backdrop to present contemporary art with daylit interiors, allowing visitors to focus on the art rather than the architecture.

In the entry lobby of the New Museum, SANAA created an open, well-lit space perfect for gathering. Towards the back, a cafe offers seating. To the side and just over a low mesh wall, a book shop entices visitors to browse through its shelves.

SANAA's design for the <a href="http://blog.2modern.com/2009/07/serpentine-gallery-pavilion-2009-kazuyo-sejima-ryue-nishizawa-of-sanaa.html">Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in Hyde Park</a>, London, provided a temporary shelter for visitors that changed appearances with the weather. The mirrored aluminum ceiling of the pavilion reflected the ground, trees and exterior world around it - bringing the outdoors inside.

As typical of <a href="http://www.sanaa.co.jp/">SANAA's</a> work, the design focused more on the interior user experience of moving through space rather than the exterior view of the structure.

Recently completed, the <a href="http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9197/sanaa-rolex-learning-center.html">Rolex Learning Center</a> in Lausanne, Switzerland is yet another example of how the duo designed for the interior experience. The single level learning laboratory has an undulating roof and floor that moves around a series of outdoor patios. Praised for its innovative design and construction, the <a href="http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9197/sanaa-rolex-learning-center.html">Rolex Learning Center</a> is designed to encourage student collaboration as well as provide them with quiet places for work and study.

SANAA worked diligently on the <a href="http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9197/sanaa-rolex-learning-center.html">Rolex Learning Center</a> to create a highly energy efficient building with a strong emphasis on <a href="../2010/03/03/stunning-green-roofed-apartment-building-rises-in-amsterdam/">natural daylighting</a> and ventilation, high efficiency insulation, double glazed windows, and <a href="../2010/02/15/som-unveils-plans-for-a-green-geothermal-district-in-beijing/">geothermal cooling</a>.

Like many of SANAA's buildings, the <a href="http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9197/sanaa-rolex-learning-center.html">Rolex Learning Center</a> should not judged solely by its simple, understated exterior, because there is so much more going on on the inside of the space.

SANAA's <a href="http://www.toledomuseum.org/glass-pavilion">glass pavilion</a> at the <a href="http://www.toledomuseum.org/">Toledo Museum of Art</a> was constructed to provide additional space for collections, artist studios, demonstration areas, and other special events. Across the street, the museum's main building has a <a href="http://www.toledomuseum.org/about/architecture">classic Greek Ionic facade</a>. To complement the museum's classic look, the glass pavilion's exterior is not flashy or extravagant, but rather sleek and elegant.

<a href="http://www.sanaa.co.jp/">SANAA</a> was chosen in 2000 to design a new building to provide additional space for the museum's collections and programming. Their design is characterized by a maze of elegantly curved glass walls.

The building that <a href="http://www.sanaa.co.jp/">SANAA</a> created for the <a href="http://www.zollverein-school.de/english/index.htm">Zollverein School of Management &amp; Design</a> is composed of 4 levels. Each level is of a varying height to provide appropriate space for each floor's different uses, which include studios, seminar rooms, offices, a library, an exhibition space and a theater. The building also has a roof garden that is meant to provide flexible working and recreational outdoor space.

Located in Germany, <a href="http://www.sanaa.co.jp/">SANAA</a>'s <a href="http://www.zollverein-school.de/english/index.htm">Zollverein School of Management &amp; Design</a> has the appearance of a large, perforated cube. Rectangular windows of three different sizes were cut into the facade to let light stream into the interior space.

Located in Nagano, Japan, <a href="http://www.sanaa.co.jp/">SANAA</a>'s design for the O-Museum (short for the Ogasawara Museum) provides a long, sleek surface that stands out against the scruffy textures of surrounding trees.

To complement the understated and sleek exterior, <a href="http://www.sanaa.co.jp/SANAA">SANAA</a> designed the O-Museum's interior to be free of frills, and with expansive views out. <a href="http://www.sanaa.co.jp/">SANAA</a> is the first duo to ever be awarded the Pritzker Prize, and Kazuyo Seijima is the second woman ever to receive the prize. The pair will receive the a bronze metal each and a $100,000 grant at an award ceremony on May 17th on Ellis Island.