I’m very happy to see all the works on display, and we’re busier now than we were then. We’re looking at things that we’re doing in the future. I think it’s good to be able to share so much of the work we have done that people wouldn’t otherwise come in contact with it. The exhibitions are good in that respect. We have all this stuff. Why keep it in the office? Send it out. — Artinfo
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Not sure why, but i am surprised by the fact that Meier was/is youngest architect (49) to have ever taken the Pritzker Prize. Presumably given date of profile, no one (still) has been younger? Does that mean the prize or architecture is getting more or less conservative?
remember when people here were lining up their favourites for the pritzker? many names, many architects...waiting..seemingly "in line" to receive the prize.
so, if you have many good and great architects and only one has to be awarded, their seniority becomes, understandably, a significant factor. its a gentlemanly/ladylike thing to do. you get up for old people when the bus is crowded so they can have your seat.
and the question whether either is getting more or less conservative is not the most relevant question, i believe. the pritzker was not given to say lebbeus woods or gordon matta clark, say? architecture is largely conservative; few moments thereof are not conservative. otherwise, better have given the Pritzker to someone like hiroshi nakao for the very few projects of his that were publicized than to someone like peter zumthor.
a more contemporary trend is not necessarily a less conservative one. perhaps, there is this interstitial phase where a new trend, a new method or aesthetic, creates a rupture i.e. is less conservative by circumstance rather than by nature. but, this rupture soon creates an audience and a pool of participants fill it up to result in its conservative space. so, you want to give pritzkers to people who have barely built anything?....the less architecture, the better the chances. but the architecture itself is destined to be conservative. and there are people on the margins and who will always remain on the margin because their work is inherently in conflict with the world. the pritzker is not for the likes of them.
@tammuz, but my point was that if as you said "seniority becomes, understandably, a significant factor" presumably in Meier's case it wasn't an issue of seniority as he was youngest (still is?) to ever have received...
Nam, Nishizawa of SANAA is the youngest to have received it (jointly with her then 54 yo partner) to date at the then architoddler age of 44.
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