Who are the women architects with the Pritzker Architecture Prize?

The Pritzker Architecture Award has been given to 5 women in total so far.

Often referred to as the "Nobel in Architecture" and "the profession's highest honor", the Pritzker Architecture Prize has been awarded to 45 architects since 1979. Zaha Hadid's winning the award, which has been given to 5 female architects so far, as the first female architect in 2004, created an important awareness in the architectural community.

The international award given annually to a living architect(s) for significant achievement was established in Chicago by the Pritzker family through the Hyatt Foundation. The aim of the award is: "To honor a living architect or architects whose built work meets the qualifications of talent, vision, and commitment by making consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture". Believing that a meaningful award would further stimulate public awareness of buildings and inspire the architectural profession, Cindy Pritzker presented the first award in 1979.

The prize, which consists of $100,000 and a bronze medal, is announced each year in May. Presentation ceremonies take place at different locations around the world each year, paying homage to the architecture of other eras and/or the works of previous laureates of the award. Since the venues are usually decided before the award winner is chosen, there is no obvious link between the two that was intended.

Each year's jury members include the winners of past years. Any licensed architect can submit a nomination for the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which can be considered by the jury. Many candidates from different fields related to the subject of advancing architecture are accepted until 1 November of any year.

1- 2 Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara – Grafton Architecture.

The 2020 Winners, Yvonne Farrell, and Shelley McNamara met in college at the School of Architecture at University College Dublin (UCD). They continued to study at UCD from 1976 to 2006, and they were appointed as assistant professors in 2015. They founded Grafon Architecture in 1978.

They won the 2012 Venice Biennale Silver Lion Award for their exhibition "Architecture as a New Geography". Farrell and McNamara were appointed as co-curators in 2018 for the Venice Biennale 16th International Architecture Exhibition with the theme FREESPACE. They were awarded the RIAI James Gandon Lifetime Achievement in Architecture Medal in 2019 and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2020 by the RIAI.

Notable projects include North King Street Housing (Dublin, Ireland 2000); Irish Urban Institute, University College Dublin (Dublin, Ireland 2002); Solstice Art Center (Navan, Ireland 2007); Loreto Community School (Milford, Ireland 2006); Offices of the Exchequer (Dublin, Ireland 2009); and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Limerick (Limerick, Ireland 2012).

“Architects and educators since the 1970s, Farrell and McNamara demonstrate mastery of the urban environment and the craftsmanship, while designing new spaces that honor and respect history. Balancing power and refinement, respecting site-specific contexts, academic, civic, and cultural institutions, and residential developments. ; they produce modern and influential works that do not repeat or imitate, but that certainly reflect their own architectural voice."

3- Carme Pigem

Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, Ramon Vilalta – RCR Architecture.

2017 Winners Carme Pigem, Rafael Aranda, and Ramon Vilalta established their own studios in RCR Architecture, Spain, in 1987. Recipients of the 2005 National Award for Architectural Culture, awarded by the Catalan government; Honorary Members of the American Institute of Architecture, 2010; Royal Institute of British Architects International Fellows, 2012; and were awarded the Gold Medal by the French Académie d'Architecture.

The team has given more than 200 lectures in Spain and foreign cities, and their work has been published in many books. In 2013 they established the RCR BUNKA Foundation to support architecture, landscape, art, and culture throughout the community.

"Aligning materiality with transparency, Aranda, Pigem, and Vilalta explore the boundaries of materials with their work seeking connections between exterior and interior, resulting in emotional and experiential architecture. They reveal their own context and discourse."

His major projects include La Cuisine Art Center (Nègrepelisse, France, 2014); Soulages Museum, G. Tregouët (Rodez, France, 2014); La Lira Theater Public Open Space and J. Puigcorbé (Ripoll, Girona, Spain, 2011); Les Cols restaurant marquee (Olot, Girona, Spain, 2011); J. Puigcorbé (Besalú, Girona, Spain, 2010) in collaboration with El Petit Comte Kindergarten; Bell-Lloc Winery (Palamós, Girona, Spain, 2007).

4- Kazuyo Sejima

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa - SANAA.

One of the 2010 winners, Kazuyo Sejima, earned a degree in architecture from the Japan Women's University. She opened her own studio in Tokyo in 1987 and was named Young Architect of the Year in Japan by the Japan Institute of Architects in 1992 she. Kazuyo Sejima has taught at Princeton University, Polytechnique de Lausanne, Tama University of the Arts, and Keio University.

Together with Ryue Nishizawa, she founded SANNA Architecture in 1995. She was awarded the Arnold Brunner Memorial Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2002, the design award from the Japanese Institute of Architecture in 2006, and the 2007 Berlin Kunstpreis award from the Berlin Academy of Arts she. She won the Golden Lion in 2004 for her most important work at the Ninth International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale.

Examples of her notable work include the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland; Toledo Art Museum Glass Pavilion in Toledo, Ohio; New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, NY; the Serpentine Pavilion in London; Christian Dior Building in Omotesando in Tokyo.

5- Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid (1950 – 2016) – Zaha Hadid Architecture.

Zaha Hadid, an architect from Baghdad, became the first female architect to be awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. Hadid, one of the most important representatives of parametric design, joined the Metropolitan Bureau of Architecture (OMA) after graduating from the Architectural Association in 1977. She later founded Zaha Hadid Architecture in London in 1980.

In parallel with her office work, she continued to serve as an academic and visiting professor at the Architectural Association (AA), Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Columbia University. Zaha Hadid Architects pioneered the use of many new materials in the architecture, industrial design, and construction sectors; she pushed the boundaries of architecture and urban design. Hadid passed away in 2016.

Vitra Fire Station (1993); Mind Zone at the Millennium Dome (1999) in Greenwich, England; Hayder Aliyev Cultural Center, Azerbaijan, and the Rosenthal Contemporary Art Center (2003) in Cincinnati, Ohio are among her known works.

"She is known as an architect whose work intensifies existing urban landscapes. She designs buildings down to the last detail, with work covering all areas of design, from the urban scale to interiors and furniture."