is a Japanese

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and director of her own firm, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates. In 1995, she co-founded the firm SANAA (Sejima + Nishizawa & Associates). In 2010, Sejima was the second woman to receive the

Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...

, which was awarded jointly with Nishizawa.

Early life and education

Sejima was born on 29 October 1956 in

Mito, Ibaraki is the capital city of Ibaraki Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 269,330 in 123,282 households and a population density of 1239 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged o ...

, Japan. She graduated from Japan Women's University in 1979. She then went on to complete the Master's Degree course in architecture in 1981. In the same year, she began working with the architecture firm Toyo Ito and Associates until 1987.

Career

After apprenticing with Toyo Ito, Sejima established Kazuyo Sejima & Associates in 1987. One of her first hires was Ryue Nishizawa, a student who had worked with Sejima at Toyo Ito and Associates. After working for Sejima for several years, Sejima asked him to form a partnership. In 1995, the two founded the

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

-based firm

SANAA Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Gover ...

(Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates). In 2010, Sejima was appointed director of architecture sector for the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, which she curated for the 12th Annual International Architecture Exhibition. She was the first woman ever selected for this position. In 2010, she was awarded the

, together with Ryue Nishizawa.Pritzker Prize 2010 Media Kit
, retrieved 29 March 2010

Major Works

Saishunkan Seiyaku Women's Dormitory (1990-1991) Competition for Nasunogahara Harmony Hall (1991) Competition for Chuya Nakahara Memorial Museum (1992) Gifu Kitagata Apartment (1994) Multi Media Studio (1995) Competition for New Campus Center for Illinois Institute of Technology (1997-1998) 'De Kunstlinie' Theatre and Cultural Centre (1998-2007) SANAA’s 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (1999-2004) Isetan, Tokyo, Japan (2000) Lee Garden, Hong Kong, China (2000-2001) House in Plum Grove (2001-2003) Glass Pavillion at the Toledo Museum of Art (2001-2006) Extension of the IVAM (2002–present) Dior Omotesando in Tokyo (2003) Bairin no le (2003) Zollverein School of Management and Design (began 2003) Naoshima Ferry Terminal (2003-2006) Towada Art Center (began 2005) Rolex Learning Center, Ècole Polytechnique Fèdèale de Lausanne PFL(2005-2009) Glass Pavillion of the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio (2006) Inujima Art House project, Okayama (began 2008) Louvre-Lens in Lens, France (2012) La Samaritaine in Paris (2020)

Bibliography

*GA (2005). ''Sejima Kazuyo + Nishizawa Ryue Dokuhon''. A.D.A. Edita. *GA (2005). ''GA ARCHITECT 18 Sejima Kazuyo + Nishizawa Ryue''. A.D.A. Edita. *Yuko Hasegawa (2005). ''Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA'', Electa. *Yuko Hasegawa (2006). ''Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa: SANAA''.

Phaidon Press Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional o ...

. * Agustin Perez Rubio (2007). ''SANAA Houses: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa''. Actar. *Joseph Grima and Karen Wong (Eds) (2008) ''Shift: SANAA and the New Museum''. Lars Müller Publishers. *Thomas Daniell (2008). ''After the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan''.

Princeton Architectural Press Princeton Architectural Press is a small press publisher, specializing in books on architecture, design, photography, landscape, and visual culture, with over 1,000 titles on its backlist. In 2013, it added a line of stationery products, includin ...

Awards and honours

* 1989 – Special Prize for Residential Architecture, Tokyo Architecture Association * 1990 – SD Prize, SD Review * 1992 – Second Prize, Commercial Space Design Award * 1995 – Kenneth F. Brown Asia Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award, the University of Hawaii (for Saishunkan Seiyaku Women’s Dormitory) 98oi * 2005 – Rolf Schock Prize in Visual Arts * 2010 -

* 2019 – Prix Versailles World JudgePrix Versailles website
/ref> * 2022 -

Praemium Imperiale Prince Takamatsu The Praemium Imperiale ( ja, 高松宮殿下記念世界文化賞, Takamatsu-no-miya Denka Kinen Sekai Bunka-shō, World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu) is an international art prize inaugur ...

award for architecture

References

External links

SANAA Official Website

2010 Pritzker prizeRyue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima win 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize
fastcompany.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Sejima, Kazuyo 1956 births Living people 20th-century Japanese architects Pritzker Architecture Prize winners Rolf Schock Prize laureates Japanese women architects 21st-century Japanese architects Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Japan Women's University alumni