Influential, award-winning Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki, dies at 91
- Isozaki won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, internationally the highest honour in the field, and was known for transcending national and cultural boundaries
- His work includes the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA, the Palau Sant Jordi stadium in Barcelona built for the Olympics, and Walt Disney’s HQ in Florida
Arata Isozaki, a Pritzker-winning Japanese architect known as a post-modern giant who blended culture and history of the East and the West in his designs, has died of old age. He was 91.
Isozaki died on Wednesday at his home on Japan’s southern island Okinawa, according to the Bijutsu Techo, one of the country’s most respected art magazines, and other media.
Isozaki won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, internationally the highest honour in the field, in 2019.
Isozaki began his architectural career under the apprenticeship of Japanese legend Kenzo Tange, a 1987 Pritzker laureate, after studying architecture at the University of Tokyo, Japan’s top school.
Isozaki founded his own office, Arata Isozaki & Associates, which he called “Atelier” around 1963, while working on a public library for his home prefecture of Oita – one of his earliest works.
He was one of the forerunners of Japanese architects who designed buildings overseas, transcending national and cultural boundaries, and also as a critic of urban development and city designs.