British architect David Chipperfield awarded Pritzker prize

Chipperfield described as an architect ‘radical in his restraint’ while taking home the industry’s highest honor.

British architect David Chipperfield has been awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize – the highest honor in the field – for his understated yet transformative designs.

The 69-year-old was honored for “timeless modern design that addresses climate urgency, transforms social relationships and revitalizes cities,” the organizers said in a statement.

Chipperfield has worked on more than 100 projects over four decades, ranging from cultural, public and academic buildings to urban planning and housing.

“He is a prolific architect who is radical in his restraint,” the organizers said in a statement announcing the 2023 winner, “demonstrating his reverence for history and culture while respecting pre-existing built and natural environments.”

Chipperfield said he was “so blown away” to become the 52nd laureate of the award.

“I see this award as an encouragement to continue to focus my attention not only on the content of architecture and its meaning, but also on the contribution we as architects can make to address the existential challenges of climate change and social inequality” , the statement said. quoted him as said.

Based in London, with offices in four other countries, Chipperfield has worked across Europe, Asia and the United States.

He is known for the renovations and reconstructions of old buildings, modernizing them while respecting their history and culture, while preserving the natural environment.

Among his best works are a rebuilding of the Neues Museum in Berlin, which was built in the 19th century and largely destroyed in World War II, and the reinvention of a 16th-century landmark in Venice, the Procuratie Vecchie, whose organizers the Pritzker Prize said, “redefined the citizenship of this building in the heart of the city to allow general access for the first time.”

In Asia, it cited Chipperfield’s headquarters for Amorepacific in Seoul, which the company said harmonized “the individual and the collective, private and public, work and rest,” and the Inagawa Cemetery Chapel and Visitor Center in Hyogo, Japan, where “the coexist physically and spiritually, with places of solitude and gathering, for peace and seeking.”

Born in London, Chipperfield grew up on a farm in Devon, south west England, where he said a collection of barns and outbuildings formed his early impressions of architecture.

He aimed his architectural firm in 1984.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize was established in 1979. Winners receive a $100,000 purse and bronze medallion.

Past laureates include IM Pei, Zaha Hadid and Shigeru Ban.

Last year, Burkina Faso-born Diebedo Francis Kere became the first African winner of the prize.