Kazuyo Sejima

Japanese architect and winner of the most prestigious Pritzker Prize, Kazuyo Sejima, was born in Mito in 1956. She graduated from Japan Women's University and has worked for Studio Toyo Ito & Associates since 1981. A few years later she became independent and founded her own studio, SANAA, in 1995 with an architect named Ryue Nishizawa.

Kazuyo Sejima's technical skills and precise work with materials such as glass, aluminum, metal mesh and plastic are reflected in her work. Strict definition of spaces and volumes are the characteristic elements of the buildings. The architectural studio's major works include the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the O-Museum in Nagano and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa. In 2010, she won the aforementioned Pritzker Prize and was the first woman in history to curate the architectural section of the Venice Biennale.