When 87-year-old Arata Isozaki was named winner of the 2019 Pritzker Prize last month, there was some head-scratching. “Didn’t he already win it?” asked one architect I know. Another said dismissively, “It’s just a lifetime-achievement award.”
Which is not to say that Isozaki does not deserve recognition under the criteria that have dominated the annual prize since its inception 40 years ago. The career of this elegant architect, who came of age in war-scarred Japan, has spanned from his early days in Kenzo Tange’s office to the establishment of a global practice in which his eclectic architecture has had brushes with Brutalism, Postmodernism, and other harder-to-label isms. “I could not dwell upon a single style,” he said.
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