Royal Academy of Arts, London announced Japanese architect Itsuko Hasegawa as the winner of the 2018 Royal Academy Architecture Prize, honoring her inspiring and enduring contribution to the culture of architecture.The inaugural award, supported by the Dorfman Foundation, forms part of the Royal Academy’s increased commitment to architecture and was decided by a distinguished international jury, chaired by the architect and Royal Academician Louisa Hutton. Jury members included architect Richard Rogers RA, Dean of Harvard Graduate School of Design Mohsen Mostafavi, BBC broadcaster Razia Iqbal, artist Conrad Shawcross RA, and critic and curator Joseph Grima.Hasegawa has largely been under recognized despite her significant contribution to modern architecture both in Japan and around the world. She began her career working with Japan’s Metabolists group of architects and later went on to work with Kazuo Shinohara, whose work foregrounds traditional Japanese architecture. Hasegawa’s buildings feature a lightness of touch, using simple materials and dynamic forms. Her buildings exude an optimism that could be interpreted as utopianism. She won the competition to design the Shonandai Cultural Centre in Fujisawa, following which, she was soon commissioned to do a large number of projects across Japan including the Sumida Culture Factory, the Yamanashi Museum of Fruit, and the Fukuroi Workshop Centre.The Royal Academy also shared the shortlist for the first RA Dorfman Award, which champions global talent that represents the future of architecture. The shortlist of five architects includes Arquitectura Expandida (Colombia); Go Hasegawa, Founder, Go Hasegawa and Associates (Japan); Anne Holtrop, Founder, Studio Anne Holtrop (The Netherlands and Bahrain); Rahel Shawl, Founder, RAAS Architects (Ethiopia); and Alireza Taghaboni, Founder, nextoffice (Iran). This list hopes to discover and bring to the fore unusual and highly sophisticated work that ranges from the social to the political.Collectively the awards demonstrate the RA’s role as a global advocate for architecture, realizing its mission to garner a wider appreciation and understanding of architecture’s vital relationship to culture and society. The RA will host a week-long public celebration from July 2 through July 8, 2018, which will include the selection of the winner of the RA Dorfman Award, as well as an address given by Itsuko Hasegawa, the winner of the inaugural Royal Academy Architecture Prize.
↧