Pritzer-winning Japanese architect Arata Isozaki dies at 91
Arata Isozaki, a Pritzker-winning Japanese architect known as a postmodern giant whose designs blended the culture and history of East and West, has died of old age. He was 91.
Isozaki died Wednesday at his home on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, Bijutsu Techo, one of the country’s most respected art magazines, and other media reported.
Isozaki won the 2019 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest international award in this field.
Isozaki began his career as an architect under the tutelage of Japanese legend Kenzo Tange, a 1987 Pritzker Prize winner, after studying architecture at the University of Tokyo, Japan’s top school.
Isozaki established his own office, Arata Isozaki & Associates, which he named “Atelier” around 1963 while working on a public library for his home prefecture of Oita – one of his earliest works.
He was one of the forerunners of Japanese architects who designed buildings abroad that crossed national and cultural borders, and also as a critic of urban development and design.
Isozaki’s best-known works include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Palau Sant Jordi stadium in Barcelona, built for the 1992 Summer Games. He also designed iconic buildings such as the Team Disney Building and the Walt Disney Company’s Florida headquarters.
Born in Oita in 1931, at the age of 14 he saw the aftermath of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski in August 1945, which killed 210,000 people.
This led to his theory that buildings are ephemeral but should also please the senses.
Isozaki had said his hometown had been bombed and over the coast.
“So I grew up near zero. It was a complete ruin and there was no architecture, no buildings and not even a city,” he said upon receiving the Pritzker. “So my first experience with architecture was the emptiness of architecture, and I started thinking about how people could rebuild their homes and cities.”
Isozaki was also a social and cultural critic. He managed offices in Tokyo, China, Italy and Spain, but relocated to Okinawa in the southwestern region of Japan about five years ago. He has taught at Columbia University, Harvard and Yale. His work also encompasses philosophy, fine arts, film and theatre.
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