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Born in 1979, the prestigious Pritzker Prize represents the symbol of excellence in the world of architecture, the greatest tribute to the creativity and talent of internationally renowned architects. Established by the Pritzker family of Chicago, magnates of the American hotel industry, through the family's Hayatt Foundation, this award is often described as "the Nobel of architecture"; not only it gives a living architect the prestige of entering the history of architecture, but a sum of $100,000 accompanied by a bronze medallion.
The initiative emerged, not surprisingly, in the city where the first skyscraper in history was also born! The Home Insurance Building, completed in 1885 by the architect William Le Baron Jenney, belonging to the revolutionary Chicago School movement, is nothing compared to the colossal and very tall contemporary skyscrapers (it measures only 42 meters in height), but for the time it was most certainly a futuristic building to say the least!
In a completely philological way, this year's Pritzker Prize award ceremony, which awarded the Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto, now 78 years old, took place in Chicago at the Art Institute, the second largest art museum in the United States. The ceremony's location is always different from year to year, offering unique scenarios, which pay homage to different eras and styles of architecture.
Scrolling through 45 years of winners and their biographies, the stories linked to some of the fundamental stages in the history of architecture emerge: the first Pritzker winner, in 1979, was the American architect Philip Johnson, 72 years old at the time, best known for his legendary Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, a pearl of modernist architecture designed in 1949.
Italy had its triumph in 1990, when the prize was awarded to the Milanese architect Aldo Rossi, who left an indelible mark in history with national and international projects, including the lively and colorful buildings complex in the Schutzenquartier in Berlin. Eight years after, it was the turn of another world-famous Italian: Renzo Piano, who conceived iconic projects such as the Center Pompidou in Paris and the New York Times Building in Manhattan.
Do you know who was the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Prize? 26 years after the creation of the award, in 2004 it was the architect of Iraqi origin and British citizen Zaha Hadid — author of remakable works such as the iconic MAXXI Museum in Rome — to be awarded. The last women Pritzker dates back to 2020 with the duo formed by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, authors, among others, of the project for the new Bocconi University building in Milan.
Many of the Pritzker winners have left an indelible mark not only in their extraordinary skylines… but also in the intimacy of our everyday spaces, creating unique design pieces, testimony to a profound connection between architecture and interior design. More and more often, the names of these masters appear in design auctions, on the stands of prestigious furniture fairs or exhibited in museums as designers of furniture and household objects. By comparing a building and an object created by the same author, synergies, unexpected connections, dialogues between disciplines, new ideas for projects and inspirations for our spaces emerge.
Take for example the minimalist forms of the Nomos table designed by Norman Foster (winner of the Pritzker Prize in 1999), reflecting the British architect's predilection for functional and high-tech design: clean and timeless lines, which are to be found in its buildings, where the skilful use of space and proportions creates elegant and modern environments.
Architects-made pieces of furniture add a piece to the interpretation of their design method. Eccentric and dynamic, the Hat Trick chairs designed by Frank Gehry (awarded in 1989), perfectly embody the unique style of the Canadian-born American architect, who stood out for experimentation and innovation in architectural design, with iconic works such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, or, in the photo, the “Dancing House”, Headquarters of the Dutch National Offices in Prague. The sinuous curves and flexible shapes of these pieces recall Gehry's iconic architecture, characterized by organic shapes and unusual materials, which give the buildings an aura of movement and surpise.
