Sejima and Nishizawa of SANAA were announced as recipients of the 2022 Praemium Imperiale in Architecture, awarded by the Japan Art Association.
On October 19, 2022, the Japan Art Association announced in Tokyo that Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA had been selected to receive the Praemium Imperiale in the Architecture category—one of the world's most prestigious international arts prizes, often described as a Nobel Prize for the arts, established in 1988 to honor achievement in fields not covered by the Nobel Prizes.
The award recognized SANAA's decades-long contribution to global architecture, including landmark projects such as the Kanazawa museum, the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, and the New Museum in New York. The Praemium Imperiale carries significant prestige within Japan and internationally, and its recipients join a distinguished roster of the world's most celebrated visual artists, architects, musicians, and filmmakers.
For Sejima, the honor reaffirmed her standing as one of the most significant architectural figures of her generation more than a decade after her Pritzker Prize win, demonstrating the lasting relevance and continued evolution of SANAA's design philosophy centered on lightness, transparency, and human-centered spatial experience.
The award ceremony, held in Tokyo, drew international attention to Japanese architectural achievement and further solidified Sejima's legacy as a pioneering woman in a historically male-dominated profession.