Kazuyo Sejima Ryue Nishizawa 2019 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medalists in Architecture
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Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, co-founders of the Tokyo-based firm SANAA, are the 2019 recipients of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture.
The awards are presented annually in observance of Jefferson's birthday, April 13 –known locally as Founder's Day – by the president of the University and the president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the independent, nonprofit organization that owns and operates his home, Monticello. This year's celebrations, including the medal presentations, will be held on Friday April 12.
Sejima and Nishizawa joins a distinguished list of past recipients of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture including architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond (see full list below).
Sejima studied architecture at the Japan Women’s University and launched her own practice in 1987. In 1995, Sejima partnered with Nishizawa to found the Tokyo-based firm SANAA (Sejima + Nishizawa and Associates). Nishizawa studied architecture at Yokohama National University, and in addition to his work with Sejima, has also maintained an independent practice since 1997.
Sejima and Nishizawa were jointly awarded the Golden Lion at the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2004 and were recipients of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010, honoring their significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.
A citation for the Pritzker prize noted, “They often opt for non-hierarchical spaces, or in their own words, the ‘equivalence of spaces,’ creating unpretentious, democratic buildings according to the task and budget at hand.”
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School of Architecture Dean Ila Berman agreed.
“In a contemporary world that so often lauds excess, SANAA’s highly inventive and carefully crafted works expose the immense power of restraint, precision and synthesis in design,” Berman said. “They create light-filled spaces of serenity and extreme beauty, that are sublime yet always inviting and open. There are few architects whose work is so truly exceptional and yet, simultaneously so highly accessible.”
SANAA’s major works include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan; the Christian Dior Omotesando Building in Tokyo, Japan; the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York; the Rolex Learning Center at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland; and the Louvre-Lens in France. Current projects include La Samaritaine in Paris, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and Bocconi University campus in Milan.
Their work is known for its carefully crafted connections between building and landscape, and its ability to provide people with meaningful experiences with their surroundings. Whether rural, as powerfully expressed in their Grace Farms project in New Canaan, Connecticut, or urban, such as The New Museum in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City, SANAA’s architecture has been described as creating a sense of fullness and experiential richness.
On the anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, April 13 (known locally as Founder’s Day), the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello join together to present the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals to recognize achievements of those who embrace endeavors in which Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and third U.S. president, excelled and held in high regard. These medals are the highest external honors bestowed by the University of Virginia, which grants no honorary degrees.
Press Release
THOMAS JEFFERSON FOUNDATION MEDALISTS IN ARCHITECTURE
1966 MIES VAN DER ROHE
1967 ALVAR AALTO
1968 MARCEL BREUER
1969 JOHN ELY BURCHARD
1970 KENZO TANGE
1971 JOSE LUIS SERT
1972 LEWIS MUMFORD
1973 JEAN LABATUT
1974 FREI OTTO
1975 SIR NIKOLAUS PEVSNER
1976 I.M. PEI
1977 ADA LOUISE HUXTABLE
1978 PHILIP JOHNSON
1979 LAWRENCE HALPRIN
1980 HUGH A. STUBBINS
1981 EDWARD LARRABEE BARNES
1982 VINCENT SCULLY
1983 ROBERT VENTURI
1984 H.H. THE AGA KHAN
1985 LEON KRIER
1986 JAMES STIRLING
1987 ROMALDO GIURGOLA
1988 DAN KILEY
1989 PAUL MELLON
1990 FUMIHIKO MAKI
1991 JOHN V. LINDSAY
1992 ALDO ROSSI
1993 ANDRES M. DUANY & ELIZABETH PLATER-ZYBERK
1994 FRANK O. GEHRY
1995 IAN L. MCHARG
1996 JANE JACOBS
1997 JAIME LERNER
1998 JAQUELIN T. ROBERTSON
1999 LORD RICHARD ROGERS
2000 DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN
2001 GLENN MURCUTT
2002 JAMES TURRELL
2003 TOD WILLIAMS & BILLIE TSIEN
2004 PETER WALKER
2005 SHIGERU BAN
2006 PETER ZUMTHOR
2007 ZAHA HADID
2008 GRO HARLEM BRUNDTLAND
2009 ROBERT IRWIN
2010 EDWARD O. WILSON
2011 MAYA LIN
2012 RAFAEL MONEO
2013 LAURIE OLIN
2014 TOYO ITO
2015 HERMAN HERTZBERGER
2016 CECIL BALMOND
2017 YVONNE FARRELL & SHELLEY MCNAMARA
2018 SIR DAVID ADJAYE
2019 KAZUYO SEJIMA & RYUE NISHIZAWA
MEDIA CONTACT:
University of Virginia School of Architecture, Sneha Patel, snehapatel@virginia.edu
