Japan's art and architecture prize, the Praemium Imperiale, announced the newest round of laureates with the award in the Architecture category going to Tod Williams and Billie Tsien this year. The Imperial Japanese House and the Japan Art Association annually award, since 1989, the award to five artists in the categories of Painting, Sculpture, Music, Cinema or Theater and Architecture. The rest of the awards of the 31st edition have been for: South African painter William Kentridge; Palestinian sculptor Mona Hatoum; German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and Japanese actor Bando Tamasaburo.

New York based architects, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien have been working together since 1977, establishing their practice, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in 1986. They have gained international recognition through their thoughtful and materiality-focused approach towards mostly public and institutional projects, such as the American Folk Art Museum, the Barnes Foundation, the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, and more recently, their competition-winning design for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
His main leitmotif in his work is that architecture be an act of "profound optimism" and a service that can reflect the values of public institutions that share this opinion. The couple and their projected buildings are characterized by integrating perfectly into their surroundings, they are a clear reflection of the hands that project them and give priority to the experience of the lives lived in them. According to the award statement "its resulting spaces imbue warmth, familiarity and serenity."
 
Over their thirty-year career, they are responsible for numerous projects both domestically and overseas, including countries such as Hong Kong and India. They quickly gained attention for their design for the Neurosciences Institute (1995) in California, referred to as a “monastery for scientists”. The Barnes Foundation (2012) in Philadelphia, skillfully reproduces the majestic atmosphere of its former location while offering new elements for the public to engage with its inimitable art collection.

In 2016 they were selected by former President Barack Obama to design The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, scheduled for completion in 2022. Throughout their body of work, no matter the complexity, they retain the values of their practice and endeavor to leave good marks upon the Earth.
 
Williams and Tsien come from different cultural backgrounds and personalities; Williams is characteristically mid-western – honest and hardworking with boundless energy. Tsien, a Chinese-American born in Ithaca, NY describes herself as culturally American and temperamentally Chinese. She is frequently found nose-deep in a novel, broadening her understanding of the world. “If I bring the ripples and the weather, she brings the sun,” says Williams. These differences are balanced by a mutual respect, integrity and collaborative spirit reflected in their design approach. “We do get into arguments,” Williams laughs. “However, we like working with each other. If we worked individually, the quality of our output would drop by half.” 

The list of previous Praemium Imperiale award winners in the Architecture category includes Ricardo Legorreta, Kenzo Tange, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Alvaro Siza, David Chipperfield, Peter Zumthor, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, and more recently, Christian de Portzamparc, Rafael Moneo, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Dominique Perrault, and Steven Holl.

An awards ceremony will be held in Tokyo on October 16 where each laureate will be presented with a medal by Japanese Prince Hitachi along with a testimonial letter and a honorarium of 15 million Yen (€125,243).

More information

Tod Williams & Billie Tsien. They began working together in 1977 and co-founded our architectural practice in 1986. Located in Midtown Manhattan, their studio focuses on work for institutions including schools, museums, and not-for-profits—organizations and people that value issues of aspiration and meaning, timelessness and beauty. They believe that architecture is the coming together of art and use. Their buildings are carefully made from the inside out to be functional in ways that speak to both efficiency and the spirit. A sense of rootedness, light, texture, detail, and most of all, experience, are at the heart of what we design. From the early sketches through construction completion, they are personally involved in every project their studio takes on.

Over the past three decades theye have received more than two dozen awards from the American Institute of Architects as well as numerous national and international citations. Outside the studio, they are active participants in the cultural community and have long-standing associations with many arts organizations. Parallel to their practice, they maintain active academic careers and lecture worldwide. As both educators and practitioners, they are deeply committed to making a better world through architecture. 
 
Tod Williams (born 1943, Detroit, Michigan) received his undergraduate, MFA, and Master of Architecture degrees from Princeton University, New Jersey after graduating from the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and serves as a Trustee of the Cranbrook Educational Community. He has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Academy, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Billie Tsien (born 1949, Ithaca, New York) received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Yale University and her M. Arch. from UCLA. She has worked with Williams since 1977 and they have been in partnership since 1986. Tsien is currently President of the Architectural League of New York and Director of the Public Art Fund. She has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Academy, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tsien was one of the recipients of the Visionary Woman Awards presented by Moore College of Art and Design in 2009.

Tod Williams & Billie Tsien.  Teaching. Williams and Tsien have taught at the Cooper Union, Harvard University, Cornell University, University of Texas, City College of New York, and Yale University.

Recognition. Williams and Tsien are the recipients of more than two dozen awards from the American Institute of Architects. They received a 2014 International Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the 2013 Firm of the Year Award from the American Institute of Architects. In 2013, each were awarded a National Medal of Arts from President Obama. They have also received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Brunner Award, the New York City AIA Medal of Honor, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture, the Municipal Art Society’s Brendan Gill Prize, and the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design.
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Published on: September 18, 2019
Cite: "Tod Williams & Billie Tsien new 2019 Praemium Imperiale" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/tod-williams-billie-tsien-new-2019-praemium-imperiale> ISSN 1139-6415
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