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Legendary Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has passed away aged 91

2022-12-29T19:41:00-05:00

Arata Isozaki is dead. The famed designer of many of post-war Japan’s most significant public buildings and cultural commissions and winner of the 2019 Pritzker Prize passed away peacefully on Wednesday at his home in Okinawa, according to the New York Times.

Born in Ōita Prefecture in 1931, Isozaki studied at the University of Tokyo before working in the office of Kenzo Tange and then setting out to form his own practice in 1963. He was among a generation of Japanese star architects and designers, including contemporaries Issey Miyake, Shiro Kuramata, and Kisho Kurokawa, that indelibly changed the way the country was perceived and spoke to the world, authoring the designs for several key structures rendered in his ever-changing and aberrant interpretation of the metabolic style.

Isozaki's 1990 Art Tower Mito. Photo courtesy of Yasuhiro Ishimoto

“The most important thing an artist can do is confront society with something it has never seen before, something in a sense improper,” Iso...

Significant works of 2019 Pritzker Prize laureate Arata Isozaki

2019-03-05T13:38:00-05:00

Arata Isozaki was just awarded the 2019 Pritzker Prize at the age of 87. Isozaki once famously said that "the most important thing an artist can do is confront society with something it has never seen before, something in a sense improper." As a full life of work lies behind the Japanese architect, we can witness the shifts and patterns of his multi-decade career as it has been committed to the level of unfamiliarity and newness that Isozaki has long sought to imbue in his work.

1. Ōita Prefectural Library, Ōita, Japan, 1962-66

Ōita Prefectural Library, photo courtesy of Yasuhiro Ishimot

As a young architect, Isozaki was influenced by the then-popular style of Brutalist architecture, and he applied it when given the opportunity to design the library in his hometown of Ōita on the island of Kyushu. Far away from Tokyo, he did not consider himself a member of the Metabolist movement due to its utilitarian motives.

2. Tsukuba Center Building, Ibaraki, Japan, 1979-83

Tsukaba Center Buil...

Arata Isozaki named 2019 Pritzker Prize winner

2019-03-05T10:17:00-05:00

Announced Tuesday morning, Arata Isozaki has been awarded the 2019 Pritzker Prize. Dubbed as the "Nobel Prize" of architecture, it is considered the industry's highest honor. Isozaki—whose notable works have included Ōita Medical Hall (1959-60) and Annex (1970-1972), the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles, and the more recent, National Convention Center in Qatar —is the 46th Pritzker Prize laureate and the eighth Japanese architect to be awarded.

On their selection, the 2019 Jury praised the architect for "possessing a profound knowledge of architectural history and theory, and embracing the avant-garde." The Citation further states that Isozaki "never merely replicated the status quo, but his search for meaningful architecture was reflected in his buildings that to this day, defy stylistic categorizations, are constantly evolving, and always fresh in their approach.”

Arata Isozaki will join the Pritzker's honorary list of laureates, which includes Balkrishna Doshi (...