The announcement Tuesday of architecture’s highest award was seen by many as a long overdue honor for this 87-year-old architect, urban designer and theorist, who is credited with fusing East and West, modern and postmodern, and global and local in a visually diverse body of work that symbolized Japan’s global influence. Isozaki’s more than 100 buildings include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona and the Qatar National Convention Center in Doha.
At his modest apartment in Naha, the capital of Okinawa, Isozaki said he was “overjoyed” to receive the prize.
“It’s like a crown on the tombstone,” he joked, flashing his trademark sense of humor.
Isozaki reflected on a six-decade long career blending architecture with visual art, poetry, philosophy, theater, writing and design.
“My concept of architecture is that it is invisible,” he said. “It’s intangible. But I believe it can be felt through the five senses.”
Crucial to Isozaki’s avant-garde approach to architecture is the Japanese concept of ma, signifying the merging of time and space, which was the subject of a traveling exhibition in 1978.
“Like the universe, architecture comes out of nothing, becomes something and eventually becomes nothing again,” Isozaki said. “That life cycle from birth to death is a process that I want to showcase.”
His commitment to the “art of space” was in part what led the Pritzker jury to select Isozaki as its 46th laureate and the eighth from Japan. He will receive the award at a ceremony in France in May.
“Possessing a profound knowledge of architectural history and theory, and embracing the avant-garde, he never merely replicated the status quo,” said the Pritzker jury in its citation, which also noted Isozaki’s support for young architects. “But his search for meaningful architecture was reflected in his buildings that to this day, defy stylistic categorizations, are constantly evolving, and always fresh in their approach.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.