Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

Wolf Prize Laureate in Architecture 2022

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

 

Award citation:

“for their work that highlights the importance to architecture of its ethnographic and inhabitational characteristics, in their writings and practice”.

 

Prize share:

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

Momoyo Kaijima  

Elizabeth Diller

 

At a time of considerable world change, when social and cultural values have been questioned, these three are outstanding in challenging norms to advance the field of architecture and its wider influence. Whilst very different in their production, they share a common vital quality of bringing research, pedagogy and practice into critical confluence for the advancement of their field. In doing so, they reveal the degree to which art, science, and engagement with society, require values that can be interrogated and challenged, as a central part of their contribution. Conscious of the wider affects of architecture, each recipient embodies the idea of collaboration in varied ways, embracing geographic, cultural and methodological differences to be celebrated: excellence through diversity. With their radical architectural visions, they continue to be meaningful influencers of future architectural generations. They have developed the agency of architecture through an expanded field, in engaging politics, the city as the base for social action, and the imperative of reaching broader audiences.

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture and received his Ph.D. in Engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he is currently a professor.

Tsukamoto and Kaijima fostered their partnership after joining forces in competitions where they achieved many successes—so much so—that they decided to found Atelier Bow-Wow in which they continue to thrive.

The prolific work of this Japanese architectural team spans over three decades. They begin each architectural project with observation: the site, those who will eventually inhabit the building, the behavior of the people in the surroundings, shared spaces, resources, and climate. With all this in mind, they will then try to push “that which exists” a bit further to create a new phenomenon.

Since 1992 when Tsukamoto and Kaijima founded their practice, they have consistently shown themselves to be exceptional practitioners, bridging the relationship between research and practice, proposing alternative ways of making architecture focused on its social affects. With the publication of ‘Made In Tokyo’ (2001) the pioneering “Behaviorology” (2010) and ‘Architectural Ethnography’ (2018), they have developed a treatise on how to translate the liminal and in-between spaces of the city into opportunities for public engagement. With a practice that is predominantly residential and adeptly made, their work on behavior gives dominance to design strategies that work bottom-up, looking at human rituals as the basis for design opportunities. This was further tested in their post 2011 tsunami project reconstructing Momonoura village. They have profoundly influenced younger generations alternative human-centered approaches to the urban environment.

Momoyo Kaijima

Wolf Prize Laureate in Architecture 2022

Momoyo Kaijima

 

Award citation:

“for their work that highlights the importance to architecture of its ethnographic and inhabitational characteristics, in their writings and practice”.

 

Prize share:

Momoyo Kaijima  

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

Elizabeth Diller

 

At a time of considerable world change, when social and cultural values have been questioned, these three are outstanding in challenging norms to advance the field of architecture and its wider influence. Whilst very different in their production, they share a common vital quality of bringing research, pedagogy and practice into critical confluence for the advancement of their field. In doing so, they reveal the degree to which art, science, and engagement with society, require values that can be interrogated and challenged, as a central part of their contribution. Conscious of the wider affects of architecture, each recipient embodies the idea of collaboration in varied ways, embracing geographic, cultural and methodological differences to be celebrated: excellence through diversity. With their radical architectural visions, they continue to be meaningful influencers of future architectural generations. They have developed the agency of architecture through an expanded field, in engaging politics, the city as the base for social action, and the imperative of reaching broader audiences.

Momoyo Kaijima is Tokyo-born and completed her Architecture degree at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, at which she later received her doctorate, as well. Today Kaijima is a Prof. of Architectural Behaviorology at ETH Zurich.

Kaijima and Tsukamoto fostered their partnership after joining forces in competitions where they achieved many successes—so much so—that they decided to found Atelier Bow-Wow in which they continue to thrive.

The prolific work of this Japanese architectural team spans over three decades. They begin each architectural project with observation: the site, those who will eventually inhabit the building, the behavior of the people in the surroundings, shared spaces, resources, and climate. With all this in mind, they will then try to push “that which exists” a bit further to create a new phenomenon.

Since 1992 when Tsukamoto and Kaijima founded their practice, they have consistently shown themselves to be exceptional practitioners, bridging the relationship between research and practice, proposing alternative ways of making architecture focused on its social affects. With the publication of “Made In Tokyo” (2001) the pioneering “Behaviorology” (2010) and “Architectural Ethnography” (2018), they have developed a treatise on how to translate the liminal and in-between spaces of the city into opportunities for public engagement. With a practice that is predominantly residential and adeptly made, their work on behavior gives dominance to design strategies that work bottom-up, looking at human rituals as the basis for design opportunities. This was further tested in their post 2011 tsunami project reconstructing Momonoura village. They have profoundly influenced younger generations alternative human-centered approaches to the urban environment.

Elizabeth Diller

Wolf Prize Laureate in Architecture 2022

Elizabeth Diller

 

Award citation:

“for her exceptional and influential work connecting architecture to artistic practice, engaged in the public domain”.

 

Prize share:

Elizabeth Diller

Momoyo Kaijima  

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

 

At a time of considerable world change, when social and cultural values have been questioned, these three are outstanding in challenging norms to advance the field of architecture and its wider influence. Whilst very different in their production, they share a common vital quality of bringing research, pedagogy and practice into critical confluence for the advancement of their field. In doing so, they reveal the degree to which art, science, and engagement with society, require values that can be interrogated and challenged, as a central part of their contribution. Conscious of the wider affects of architecture, each recipient embodies the idea of collaboration in varied ways, embracing geographic, cultural and methodological differences to be celebrated: excellence through diversity. With their radical architectural visions, they continue to be meaningful influencers of future architectural generations. They have developed the agency of architecture through an expanded field, in engaging politics, the city as the base for social action, and the imperative of reaching broader audiences.

Elizabeth Diller, a Polish-born American architect, Professor of Architectural Design at Princeton University, Diller began her studies at Cooper Union in the 70s, with the interest of becoming a filmmaker but eventually was drawn to study architecture. Elizabeth talks of the influence that the New York cultural scene, which at that time was a hotbed of creativity and alternative thinking, had on her work. She was greatly moved by looking at the works of people from various fields including Stanley Kubrick, the filmmaker, and the artist, Gordon Matta-Clark. Inherent in her work is the intention and ability to break the boundaries between art and architecture. During her studies at Cooper Union, Elizabeth met her future spouse and partner Ricardo Scofidio, who together founded the firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). Her practice specializes in buildings for cultural institutions and has made groundbreaking projects that radically present her propositions to the wider public.

Elizabeth Diller has completed groundbreaking projects in the connected worlds of art and architecture, radically representing her propositions to the wider public. With three decades of work between academia, research and practice, her efforts have radicalized the relationship between architecture, art and the engagement of a larger audience. Many key works of her studio, Diller Scofidio + Renfro – including notably, Blur Building from the 2002 Swiss Expo to the High Line which first opened in 2009 in New York – have involved designing public spaces with an emphasis on scenographies that migrate from performing and visuals arts spaces to the urban landscape. These environmental projects are informed and activated by Diller and partner Ricardo Scofidio’s early, self-generated and alternative projects, including “para-site”, installed at MoMA in 1989, as well as the Mile-Long Opera, a performance Diller co- created and directed in 2019, featuring 1,000 singers along the High Line. This approach has transformed the ways in which new subjectivities are conceived.

Moshe Safdie

Wolf Prize Laureate in Architecture 2019

Moshe Safdie

 

Award citation:

“For a career motivated by the social concerns of architecture and formal experimentation”.

 

Prize Share:

None

 

Over a long and distinguished career spanning 50 years, Moshe Safdie has produced a body of work of great originality and artistry in the field of architecture and urbanism. He is also a distinguished educator and in his numerous publications he has articulated a clear and coherent position as an academic and critic.

The projects undertaken by his architectural studio consistently seek experimentation, and can be understood as an evolving form of research. The outreach of the practice is truly international, with projects completed in North and South America, Asia and the Middle East.

The Habitat ’67 project, part of the Montreal World Exposition, is a seminal example of experimental housing, and the impact it has had on housing concepts cannot be overstated. It remains a model of relatively low-rise, high-density housing and has been drawn upon by many architects throughout the world since it was completed. This project alone is worthy of significant recognition.
What has followed is a collection of projects of great complexity and cultural significance, which include, amongst many others, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Harvard Rosovsky Hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Exploration Place in Wichita, Kansas, the National Library of Israel and the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem. All of these project address complex public programmes and explore an architecture of exceptional originality and formal experimentation.
The jury of the Wolf Foundation Prize in the field of architecture has unanimously decided to support the nomination of Moshe Safdie for this most prestigious award.

Phyllis Lambert

Wolf Prize Laureate in Architecture 2016

Phyllis Lambert

 

Award Citation:

“For being vigorously involved in the realization of seminal innovative buildings, exemplary urban regeneration projects and leading research institutes”.

 

Prize Share:

None

 

“Citizen Lambert” embodies the vicissitudes of the culture of architecture over 6 decades. Playing all possible roles of designer, planner, artist, writer, photographer, curator, museum director, patron and philanthropist, she ultimately stands for professional rigor and aesthetic elegance, but also for intellectual doubt and political critic. From the mid 1950’s to the present she is vigorously involved in the realization of seminal innovative buildings, exemplary urban preservation and regeneration projects and leading architectural research institutes.

Lambert’s first work of architecture was commissioning Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as designer of the Seagram Building in New York and herself as director of planning (1954-1958) for the project. During the 1960s she designed the Saidye Bronfman Centre in Montreal and served as consultant for the Toronto-Dominion Center project. In the 1970’s Lambert was architect-developer (with Gene Summers) for the renovation of the landmark Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles and won for this project the National Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects.

Lambert has been the founder, the director and the chair of the board of trustees of the Canadian Center for Architecture (completed in 1989), a notable museum and study center in Montreal. Housing extensive collections of architectural drawings, books, photographs and documents, hosting numerous scholars and curators, and initiating considerable publications and exhibitions, the CCA has established itself as both an exquisite reservoir of historical treasures and a prolific catalyst of architectural and urban discourse.

A persistent civic activist, Lambert was instrumental in founding the preservation group Heritage Montreal; the Investment Fund of Montreal, which revitalizes medium- and low-income housing; the Montreal Institute of Policy Alternatives; and a roundtable dedicated to renewing Montreal’s western downtown neighborhood. She has initiated a number of preservation-related projects and publications including: Court House – A photographic Document; Photography and Architecture: 1839-1939; Opening the Gates of Eighteenth-Century Montreal; and The Fortress of Babylon and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo.

Eduardo Souto de Mouro

Wolf Prize Laureate in Architecture 2013

Eduardo Souto de Mouro

 

Award citation:

“for the advancement of architectural knowledge in showing how buildings can philiosophically and experientially engage with the natural world, and for his exceptional skills as a designer”.

 

Prize share:

None

 

Architecture can be considered as the most social of all art forms with a direct impact on each of us as a source of constant inspiration. In a body of work of different scales and types, in Portugal and abroad, Eduardo Souto de Moura has created a better environment for people in a clear social frame work. Of particular note is the coexistence that his buildings establish between society and nature, most poignantly in the stadium at Braga To reward his advancement of the craft and ideas of architecture.

Peter Eisenman

Wolf Prize Laureate in Architecture 2010

Peter Eisenman

 

Award citation:

“for being an innovative architect and educator, for advancing the discipline of architecture through both theoretical texts and exceptional buildings of profound consequence”.

 

Prize share:

Peter Eisenman

David Chipperfield 

 

Peter Eisenman (born in 1932, U.S.A), innovative architect and educator, has advanced the discipline of architecture with theoretical texts and exceptional buildings of profound consequence. His critical redefinition of architecture, as a language and mode of thought, has influenced generations of architects and educators, internationally. Indeed, Eisenman is the most important leader in the establishment of a meaningful discourse among architects, theorists and historians. Throughout his career, Eisenman´s design and teaching methods have profoundly deepened knowledge of the forms and underlying principles of classical and modern architecture. His numerous theories have transformed the structure of meaning in architecture.

In his corpus and in those of the numerous architects he has analyzed, buildings become testaments to historical processes and the possibilities of architecture in the future. The relationships between object and subject, form and function, building and landscape, architecture and nature, are radically rethought. Eisenman’s bold and unsettling portrayal of destruction and erasure in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin provides a new paradigm for memorialization that confronts tragedy and loss in an unforgettable way.

 

David Chipperfield

Wolf Prize Laureate in Architecture 2010

David Chipperfield

 

Award citation:

“extraordinary architect, who has brought great refinement and quality to a contemporary interpretation of classical architecture, as a profound principle, rather than simply as an image”.

 

Prize share:

David Chipperfield 

Peter Eisenman

 

David Chipperfield (born in 1953, UK), extraordinary architect, has brought great refinement and contemporary interpretation of classical architecture, as a profound principle, rather than merely as an image.
Seeking architectural longevity, as opposed to the fashionable and ephemeral, Chipperfield’s rigorous attention to the tectonic language of architecture contributes depth and refinement to its expression. Chipperfield’s buildings embody a masterful ability to combine a sensitive and responsible approach to large- and small-scale projects, with a precise and poetic handling and control of detailing and materiality. His projects provide unmistakable evidence of a meaningful relationship between urbanism and architecture. Chipperfield´s solution to the reconstruction and addition to the “Neues Museum” in Berlin stands out as an exemplary work of subtlety and clarity, resurrecting a profoundly important cultural edifice neglected by history, and allowing it to rise anew from the ashes of a most tragic past.

Jean Nouvel

Wolf Prize Laureate in Architecture 2005

Jean Nouvel

 

Award citation:

“for providing a new model of contextualism and redefining the dialectic between the two salient characteristics of contemporary architecture: concreteness and ephemerality”.

 

Prize share:

None

 

With his “principle of inclusion”, Jean Nouvel deploys the richest of palettes available to the contemporary architect. In each of his proposals and works, the result is exceptional. Nouvel does not impose a priori forms or materials. For him, architectural form follows neither from the architect’s vocabulary, nor from a predictable response to context. Rather, the proposed and the pre-existing interact to produce a result characterized by new material assemblages. His buildings acquire a life of their own, by establishing surprising atmospheric contrasts between interior and surroundings, and between discrete architectural spaces and the metropolitan network in which they are situated.

Rapidly changing modes of computational communication imply an astonishing range of spatial variables. Nouvel responds by giving definition to a variety of programmatic demands. He demonstrates the distinctive capacity of architecture to test and sustain technological advancements in spatial and material terms. His architecture is infused with hitherto unforeseen potentials of a new, digitally transformed world. Experimental engineering and inventive methods of assembly are combined to produce a three-dimensional reality that shares an affinity with the virtual, imaginary one. The production of images, light and sound, is unified with the plastic definition of space, to create a distinctively ‘ambiguous’ situation. Ultimately, what is uniquely effective in the work of Nouvel is the role it has played in forming a new model of contextualism. It distinguishes itself from more traditional models by means of novel interventions, aimed at reformulating the dialectic between the two reigning parameters of the digital universe: concreteness and ephemerality.

Álvaro Siza

Wolf Prize Laureate in Architecture 2001

Álvaro Siza

 

Award citation:

“for the critical relevance of his typically responsive architecture to the continual transformation of both landscape and urban fabric”.

 

Prize share:

None

 

Starting with extremely modest interventions in the relatively underdeveloped country Portugal was, Architect Álvaro Siza consistently demonstrated the catalytic power of architectonic creation to transform and re-energize the context in which it is situated. He has done this by enriching and revitalizing the syntactical, spatial and programmatic legacy of the Modern Movement without indulging in the formalism to which contemporary architectural practice is so evidently prone, be this of a superficially spectacular or technological nature. Siza has been able to maintain the consistency of his ethical position without inhibiting his prodigious capacity for poetic intervention.