SANAA Pritzker 2010 Winners

As most of you know, the Pritzker Architectural Prize is awarded annually to a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of talent, vision and commitment and represents a consistent and significant contribution to humanity and the built environment.

Kazuyou Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, partners in the Japanese architectural firm SANAA, have been named the 2010 Laureates of the Pritzker Architectural Prize. It is the second time in the Pritker’s 31-year history that the prize has gone to a pair and the second time its gone to a woman. The formal ceremony will take place on 17 May at Ellis Island in New York. At that time the architects will be awarded a $100,000 grant and bronze medallions.

The jury said they selected the Japanese duo as the 2010 Laureates, “For architecture that is simultaneously delicate and powerful, precise and fluid, ingenious but not overly or overtly clever; for the creation of buildings that successfully interact with their contexts and the activities they contain; for creating a sense of fullness and experiential richness; for a singular architectural language that springs from a collaborative process that is both unique and inspirational; and for their notable completed buildings and the promise of new projects together.”

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The Pavilion of Ideas, designed by Heatherwick Studio, beat five other short-listed designs, including plans put forward by the creators of the London Eye – the largest Ferris wheel in the world – to becomes the winner. The pavilion looks like a box with thousands of spines that hover without visible support above a public square.

All the spines, which can swing in the breeze, are tipped with tiny colored light sources which can display a variety of images together.

Inside the pavilion, visitors will see an enormous digital screen showing various contents. The outside area of the pavilion will be an exhibition space and auditorium as well as a cafe and shops surrounded by two strips of grass. The pavilion will be as ecological as possible and the designers are trying to make all the aspects recyclable and carbon-neutral. It is light, without heavy concrete foundations and will “touch the ground softly,” according to the introduction by Heatherwich.

Seen at Archtracker.