Kazuyo sejima biography of williams
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Kazuyo Sejima (1956–)
With her boundless imagination and quietly disruptive ideas, the co-founder of Japanese practice SANAA plays a critical role as a modernist trailblazer
Illustration by Ema Kawanago
‘Couldn’t we look at a site as a place where actions happen to pass by?’ asked Kazuyo Sejima (1956–) in an AR text by Peter Davey from April 1990. The question could easily apply to SANAA’s recently completed Sydney Modern Project (2022), the new building for the Art Gallery of New South Wales. But the article covered her Platform Houses from 1988 and 1990, which Davey described as ‘neutral enclosures for transitory human activities’ – foreshadowing the work she would realise in the ensuing decades. At the time, Sejima was in charge of her own practice, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates, established in 1987, in which she synthesised visions of minimal dwelling, lightweight materials and abstract spatial composition. These ideas built on the work of her mentors wit
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Kazuyo Sejima named as first Rolex Architecture mentor
Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima has been named as the first architecture mentor in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, it was announced today at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia.
Architecture will now be added as a seventh category in Rolex's global filantropi programme, which includes literature, music, visual arts, dance, film and theatre.
Sejima, a partner in the architecture practice SANAA, joins a distinguished line-up of Rolex mentors for the current cycle of the programme, which pairs major artists with rising ung talents. They are: Margaret Atwood (literature), Patrice Chéreau (theatre), Gilberto Gil (music), William Kentridge (visual arts), Lin Hwai-min (dance) and Walter Murch (film).
Sejima's protégé will be named in autumn 2012. The ung architect will be invited to spend time over a period of a year working on Home For All. The planerat arbete was created by Sejim
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Japanese stars SANAA win Royal Gold Medal for architecture
According to the RIBA, which announced the honour today (6 February), the medal recognises the Japanese practice’s work around the globe and projects that ‘bring simplicity, light and elegance to the fore’.
SANAA is known for its ‘sustainable, user-centred design’ including art galleries such as the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (2004), Lourve-Lens in France (2012) and the Sydney Modern in New South Wales, Australia (2022).
In 2010 the studio completed the ‘quietly flowing low rise’ Rolex Learning Center at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
SANAA has only had one project built in the UK: the 2009 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion.
Other notable works over the course of their three decade career include, the Dior Omotesando Store, Japan (2003); Zollverein School of Design, Germany (2006); and Grace Farms, USA (2015)
The medal is the latest in