Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Isozaki dies

First modification: 12/30/2022 – 10:26

Isozaki died at his home in Okinawa on Wednesday and his funeral will be held only with his close family present, his office said in an email to AFP.

His work is considered an example of postmodern architecture, which combined influences from Asian and Western culture and history in its designs at a time of dominance of the American and European styles.

Protected by the legendary Kenzo Tange, the first Japanese architect to win the Pritzker, Isozaki designed the multifunctional pavilion Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona or the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

He was also behind the construction of the Team Disney Building, the administrative headquarters of the Walt Disney Company in Florida, among other iconic structures.

Born in 1931 in Oita, in southwestern Japan, Isozaki stood out as a social critic.

He was barely 14 years old when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by nuclear bombs, and the ruins of postwar Japan never left him.

“I grew up almost at ground level. Everything was completely in ruins and there was no architecture, no buildings, not even a city,” he had said.

“So my first experience of architecture was the void of architecture and I began to consider how people could build houses and cities.”

By awarding him the most prestigious prize in architecture in 2019, the Pritzker committee praised the mix of influences in his work.

“Isozaki was one of the first Japanese architects to build outside of Japan at a time when Western civilizations traditionally influenced the East,” Tom Pritzker, president of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the award, said at the time.

The jury argued that his architecture “never simply replicated the status quo.” “His search for significant architecture of his was reflected in his buildings that, until now, escape stylistic categorizations.”