Sir David Alan Chipperfield CH, civic architect, urban planner and activist, has been selected as the 2023 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Born in 1953, Chipperfield’s prolific career spans four decades, consisting of over one hundred projects throughout Asia, Europe and North America. Best known for his modernist aesthetics and historical sensitivity in restorative works – including Berlin’s Neues Museum, Venice’s Procuratie Vecchie, and currently the Shanghai Municipal Council building – Chipperfield’s architectural interventions provide his elegant and austere style with location-specific responses to environmental, cultural, and civic issues.
‘As an architect, I’m in a way the guardian of meaning, memory, and heritage. Cities are historical records, and architecture after a certain moment is a historical record. Cities are dynamic, so they don’t just sit there, they evolve. And in that evolution, we take buildings away and we replace them with others. We choose ourselves, and the concept of only protecting the best is not enough. It’s also a matter of protecting character and qualities that reflect the richness of the evolution of a city’, Chipperfield says in a statement.
Chipperfield is the 52nd Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which awards USD$100,000 and a bronze medallion to each laureate. Founded in 1979 by the Pritzker family of Chicago, the annual award is regarded as architecture’s highest honour. The 2023 Pritzker Prize ceremony will be held this May in Athens, Greece.
