"Event Time: 2012-05-25"
Beijing, China#
The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.
Eduardo Souto de Moura, a 58 year old architect from Portugal, was the jury’s choice for the 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
The 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize Ceremony will be held in Beijing, China on May 25, 2012.
Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation, elaborated, “During the three decades of prize-giving, we have held ceremonies in 14 different countries, in venues ranging from the White House in Washington, DC to Todai-ji Temple in Nara, Japan. The tradition of moving the event to sites of global architectural significance was established to emphasize that the prize is international, the laureates having been chosen from 16 different nations to date. This will be our 34th event and the first time we have gone to China.”
“It is particularly appropriate that we should go to China because so many of the laureates have projects there, either in progress or completed, including one of our earliest laureates, I.M. Pei, who won the prize in 1983,” Pritzker continued. “Some of the others include the 2002 Pritzker Laureate Zaha Hadid of London who designed the new opera house in Guangzhou; the 2001 laureates Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Switzerland who designed Beijing’s National Stadium; Rem Koolhaas of the Netherlands whose projects in China include the headquarters of Central Chinese Television in Beijing and the Shenzen Stock Exchange; and the 1999 Pritzker Laureate Norman Foster who has completed the Hong Kong International Airport as well as the headquarters for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.”