Current:Home > StocksMore timeless than trendy, Sir David Chipperfield wins the 2023 Pritzker Prize-LoTradeCoin
More timeless than trendy, Sir David Chipperfield wins the 2023 Pritzker Prize
View Date:2024-12-23 23:50:23
Sir David Chipperfield is the latest winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the prestigious award that has gone in the past to the likes of Frank Gehry, Luis Barragán, Oscar Niemeyer and Zaha Hadid.
Unlike those starchitechts, Chipperfield creates understated buildings, including many elegant and dignified museums (and additions to museums), such as the campus of the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri, Turner Contemporary in the United Kingdom, Museo Jumex in Mexico City and Kunsthaus Zürich in Switzerland, as well as the Des Moines Public Library.
Crisp and minimalist, his aesthetic is timeless, rather than trendy. As the Pritzker jury wrote its citation, "We do not see an instantly recognizable David Chipperfield building in different cities, but different David Chipperfield buildings designed specifically for each circumstance."
How is the 2023 Pritzker laureate feeling about being described as not "instantly recognizable?"
"I'm happy with that," Chipperfield said to NPR. "The idea of the architect's signature has become a rather overstated ambition."
A Chipperfield building is one that thoughtfully blends into its context, says architecture professor Mabel Wilson. "It's also a building that's very simple and precise," she told NPR. "It isn't something that comes at you all at once but something that's very measured. And I think that kind of exactitude describes Chipperfield's practice."
In 1997, Chipperfield's firm was picked to renovate Berlin's Neues Museum. Built in the mid 1800s, the museum was bombed nearly to pieces during World War II, then sat derelict in East Berlin. "The building had stood as a ruin for more than 50 years," Chipperfield said in a 2011 TedX talk. "History had somehow left it behind."
Chipperfield preserved the remnants as part of the design. "That was an incredibly controversial decision and it put me in dialogue, let's say, with the citizens of Berlin," he explained. The process was, he said, an example of the collaborative effort Chipperfield sees as central to his practice. Berlin is also home to huge, spare Neue National built by Mies Van Der Rohe in 1968, which Chipperfield lovingly renovated decades later.
"That's an amazing modernist icon," says Mabel Wilson. "That museum is actually one of my favorite buildings in the world."
The world is filled with hideous modern architecture, Chipperfield acknowledged during a 2011 TedX talk. "No wonder you hate us," he said, showing a slide of a gloomy, grey Holiday Inn standing, he said, mere meters from his home. "This is appalling."
In the talk, Chipperfield decried how so many buildings all over the world contain the DNA of bad modern architecture, due to cynical clients, a construction industry consumed with finishing fast and architects unconcerned about building for the future.
"We don't build well anymore," he said, wistfully pointing out an elegant old church standing behind the generically drab corporate hotel in the photo. "In that process, we seem to have lost the physical quality of architecture."
Perhaps something metaphysical as well, the newest Pritzker laureate suggests. Call it architecture's soul.
Edited by: Ciera Crawford
Audio story produced by: Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
Audio story edited by: Ciera Crawford
Visual Production by: Beth Novey
Past Pritzker Prizes
veryGood! (41952)
Related
- Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul press conference highlights: 'Problem Child' goads 'Iron Mike'
- EAGLEEYE COIN: Unlocking the Future of Finance.PayPal's PYUSD meets DeFi
- Fire chief in Texas city hit hard by wildfires dies while fighting a structure blaze
- NFL franchise tag deadline winners, losers: Who emerged from 2024 deadline with advantage?
- My Little Pony finally hits the Toy Hall of Fame, alongside Phase 10 and Transformers
- Georgia pushes group to sanction prosecutors as Fani Willis faces removal from Trump case
- Wicked Tuna's Charlie Griffin and Dog Leila Dead After Boating Accident
- Sen. Susan Collins’ mother, a civic-minded matriarch, dies at age 96
- Kate Spade Outlet’s Early Black Friday Sale – Get a $259 Bag for $59 & More Epic Deals Starting at $25
- EAGLEEYE COIN: A New Chapter for Cryptocurrencies
Ranking
- Federal judge orders Oakland airport to stop using ‘San Francisco’ in name amid lawsuit
- The 28 Best Bikinis With Full Coverage Bottoms That Actually Cover Your Butt- SKIMS, Amazon, and More
- Woman survives bear attack outside her home; mother bear killed and 3 cubs tranquilized
- Where will Russell Wilson go next? Eight NFL team options for QB after split with Broncos
- NBA today: Injuries pile up, Mavericks are on a skid, Nuggets return to form
- The U.S. sharply limits how much credit cards can charge you in late fees
- 'The Backyardigans' creator Janice Burgess dies of breast cancer at 72
- You'll Be Amazed By These Secrets About Cruel Intentions
Recommendation
-
Amazon Best Books of 2024 revealed: Top 10 span genres but all 'make you feel deeply'
-
Montreal’s ‘Just for Laughs’ comedy festival cancels this year’s edition, seeks to avoid bankruptcy
-
Riverdale’s KJ Apa and Clara Berry Break Up After 4 Years
-
Married LGBTQ leaders were taking car for repairs before their arrest in Philadelphia traffic stop
-
Study finds Wisconsin voters approved a record number of school referenda
-
Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes’ Exes Andrew Shue and Marilee Fiebig Show Subtle PDA During Date Night
-
How to cancel Apple subscriptions: An easy guide for iPhone, iPad and Macs
-
Pregnant Lala Kent Says She’s Raising Baby No. 2 With This Person