SANAA Architects: Architecture, Tokyo

SANAA Architects, Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa, Contemporary building photos, Japanese design studio news

SANAA Architects Office

Contemporary Architecture Practice, Japan Design Office News + Images

post updated 10 February 2024

SANAA News

SANAA Architects News

15 October 2020
Sydney Modern Project, NSW, Australia
Sydney Modern Project: Art Museum
image © AGNSW
Sydney Modern Project: Art Museum
Australia’s most significant new art museum project will be the first building in the Southern Hemisphere by Pritzker Prize-winning architects SANAA. New civic campus bringing together art, architecture and landscape in spectacular new ways with a public art garden and landscape creating seamless indoor and outdoor experiences.

20 Oct 2016
Grace Farms Wins Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize
Grace Farms (New Canaan, Connecticut, US) by the firm SANAA is the recipient of the 2014/2015 MCHAP, recognizing the most distinguished architectural works built on the North and South American continents.
Grace Farms, the River building
photo © Iwan Baan
Grace Farms New Canaan by SANAA Architects wins 2014/2015 MCHAP

Kazuko Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa were recognized with the MCHAP Award, the MCHAP Chair at IIT Architecture Chicago for the following academic year, and $50,000 in funding toward research and publication.

12 Feb 2016
Neruda Tower Building, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Design: SANAA, architects with Bernardo Gomez Pimienta
Neruda Tower in Guadalajara by SANAA
image from architect
Neruda Tower design
This 25-storey mixed-use office building was to be located in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

26 Nov 2015
New National Gallery of Hungary, Budapest, Hungary
New National Gallery design by SANAA Architects
image from architect
New National Gallery of Hungary
This new building will be built in the Vársoliget (City Park) according to the design made by the internationally renowned Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates architects studio. The new museum is due to open in summer 2019.

10 Oct 2013
Taichung City Cultural Center Competition, Taiwan
1st Prize
Taichung City Cultural Center Building design by SANAA Architects
image from architect
Taichung City Cultural Center Competition Winners
Tenderer: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA Nationality: Japan
Joint Tenderer: Ricky Liu & Associates Architects+Planners / Ricky Liu Nationality: Taiwan (R.O.C.)

Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa – Office location: Tokyo, Japan

Recent SANAA News + Building Additions

new photos 12 Dec 2012
Louvre Lens Museum, France – building news
Design: Sanaa / Imrey Culbert / Catherine Mosbach
Louvre Lens Museum design by SANAA Architects
photograph © Hisao Suzuki
>Louvre Lens Museum
New photos of this major building – refined but rather austere architecture – redolent of the simple volumes of Mies van der Rohe (eg National Gallery Berlin or Crown Hall) but in a very light style, finely detailed. But when compared with say the Pompidou’s sojourn into the countryside (the rather bizarre Centre Pompidou-Metz by Shigeru Ban) this building, especially the opaque facades, has moments of dullness. A little more Joie de vivre would have been welcome!

Bocconi University Campus, Milan, Italy
Playful proposals unveiled for the Bocconi University Campus in Milan, Italy. The design is typical for SANAA architects with organic forms and a central green space.
The development is located at the former Centrale del Latte – a Milanese milk-processing plant.
The key elements of the design are a 17,500 sqm public park wwith surrounding dormitories, School of Management, buildings for Bocconi’s Master and Executive programmes and a recreation centre.

27 Mar 2012
Magasin La Samaritaine, Paris, France
Magasin La Samaritaine Paris design by SANAA Architects
photograph © Colin Eaton
Magasin La Samaritaine
La Samaritaine on rue de Rivoli is a design by Tokyo-based Pritzker Prize winning architects SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates) which was founded in 1995 by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have been commissioned by LVMH to completely refurbish the building. The project is described as the largest privately funded project undertaken in Paris.

12 Sep 2011
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, – New Campus, Jerusalem, Israel
SANAA with Nir Kutz Architects
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design by SANAA Architects
image from BAAD
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
September 2011, Jerusalem: Japanese architecture firm SANAA in collaboration with the Israeli firm, Nir Kutz Architects, has been chosen to design the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design’s new campus in Jerusalem’s city center.

SANAA – Recent Buildings + Architecture Studio News

1 Jun 2011
Novartis HQ, Basel, Switzerland
2001-
Basel Headquarters Novartis Building design by SANAA Architects
photo : building owner
Novartis Basel Headquarters

Danish Architecture Centre SANAA Exhibition : 19 Jun – 1 Oct 2010
Danish Architecture Centre – DAC, Copenhagen, Denmark

Pritzker Prize architects : SANAA were Winners in 2010. 29 Mar 2010

The meteoric rise of architects SANAA to join the likes of Hadid, Gehry, Nouvel, Ando and Koolhaas as one of the most celebrated architects studios in the world can be traced back to the New Contemporary Art Museum building in New York.

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009 design by SANAA Architects

But since then the architects have kept surprising us with totally new designs (unlike Gehry they don’t have a specific house style). Key buildings by SANAA are the Rolex Learning Center (Switzerland), Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009 (UK), the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (Japan) and most recently the superb Teshima Art Museum (Japan).

Each design by SANAA architects is creative and thoughtful, rising above mere architectural fashion (e-architect Editor Adrian Welch).

Teshima Art Museum, Japan
Design: architect Ryue Nishizawa + artist Rei Naito
Teshima Art Museum Building
photograph : Noboru Morikawa
Teshima Art Museum
Stunning design – simple + powerful : “Uniting the creative visions of artist Rei Naito and architect Ryue Nishizawa, Teshima Art Museum stands on a hill on the island of Teshima overlooking the Inland Sea. Shaped like a drop of water, the museum lies in a corner of the spacious grounds.”

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009 : Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009 design by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion SANAA
image © Nick Weall
Serpentine Pavilion 2009

Derek Lam Boutique, New York City, NY, USA
2009
Derek Lam New York Store
photograph from DLM
Derek Lam New York Boutique

Major Work by SANAA

New Museum of Contemporary Art – Extension, SoHo, Manhattan, USA
2006-07
New York Museum of Contemporary Art
photograph from SANAA, 2007
New York Museum of Contemporary Art

Key Buildings by SANAA Architects

Projects by this architects practice listed alphabetically:

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
2004
Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa
photo © 2008 Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA

De Kunstlinie – Almere Theatre / Almere Arts Centre, The Netherlands
2007
De Kunstlinie
photo © Adrian Welch
Almere Building Photos

Dior Omotesando – Dior Store, Tokyo, Japan
2003
Christian Dior Omotesando Building
photograph © Robert Day
The Christian Dior Omotesando Building is featured on our Japanese Architecture Tour page.

Glass Pavilion, Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA
2006
Museum of Art Toledo
picture © 2008 Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA

House in a Plum Grove, Tokyo, Japan
2003

New Museum of Contemporary Art – Extension, SoHo, New York, USA
2006-07

Rolex Learning Center, Ecole Polytechnique Federale, Switzerland
2010
Rolex Learning Center
image © EPFL
Rolex Learning Center

Zollverein School of Management & Design, Essen, Germany
2006
Zollverein School of Management
photo © 2008 Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA
Zollverein Building

More SANAA architects projects online soon

SANAA Architects : Further Information on buildings, awards, publications, etc.

Key Design (unbuilt) by SANAA

Camp Nou Stadium Redevelopment – Competition entry, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
2007
Camp Nou Stadium
image from architecture firm, 2007
Camp Nou Stadium Competition Design : Spanish Architecture Contest

Architecture Practice Information

Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima (right) and Ryue Nishizawa (left)
Sejima Nishizawa
picture © 2008 Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA, photograph © Takashi Okamoto

Ryue Nishizawa – ar+d Jury member 2004

Kazuyo Sejima was the Director of 12th International Architecture Exhibition, People meet in architecture : 29 Aug – 21 Nov 2010
Venice Biennale, Italy

Images of Buildings by SANAA Architects welcome : info(at)e-architect.com

SANAA – Japanese Architects

Principles Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have, in a short time, developed SANAA from a Japanese partnership to a globally-recognized architects studio responsible for high-profile projects including The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, The Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, the New Contemporary Art Museum building in Manhattan and the Christian Dior building in Omotesando, Tokyo.

Kazuyo Sejima – principle
1956 Born in Ibaraki Prefecture
Graduated from Japan Women’s University with Masters Degree in Architecture Joined Toyo Ito & Associates
1987 Established Kazuyo Sejima & Associates
1995 Established SANAA with architect Ryue Nishizawa
2001 Professor at Keio University
2006 Visiting Professor at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
2006- Visiting Professor at Princeton University

Ryue Nishizawa – principle
1966 Born in Kanagawa Prefecture
Graduated from Yokohama National University with Masters Degree in Architecture Joined Kazuyo Sejima & Associates
1995 Established SANAA with architect Kazuyo Sejima
1997 Established Office of Ryue Nishizawa
2001- Associate Professor at Yokohama National University
2006 Visiting Professor at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
2006- Visiting Professor at Princeton University
2007- Visiting Professor at GSD, Harvard University

More information on this Japanese architects office online soon

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Major Works

1996
Multimedia Workshop, Gifu, Japan
S-House, Okayama, Japan

1997
N-Museum, Wakayama; Japan M-House, Tokyo; K-Building, Ibaraki, Japan

1998
Koga Park Café, Ibaraki

1999
O-Museum, Nagano, Japan

2000
Day Care Center, Kanagawa, Japan
La Biennale di Venezia, 7th International Architecture Exhibition “City of girls” Japanese Pavilion, Venice, Italy
PRADA Beauty Prototype

2001
PRADA Beauty LEEGARDEN Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Garden Cafe at the 7th International Istanbul Biennale, Istanbul, Turkey

2003
ISSEY MIYAKE by NAOKI TAKIZAWA, Tokyo
Christian Dior Building Omotesando, Tokyo

2004
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, Kanazawa, Japan

2006
Zollverein School of management and design, Essen, Germany
The Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, Toledo, Ohio, USA
Novartis Campus WSJ-158 Office Building, Basel, Switzerland
Naoshima Ferrey Terminal building, Kagawa, Japan

2007 Stadstheater Almere ‘De Kunstlinie’, Almere, the Netherlands
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA

Current Projects

Extension of the Institute Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain House for China International Practical Exhibition of Architecture, Nanjing, China Learning Center, EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne), Switzerland Louvre Lens, Paris, France Vitra Factory Building, Weil am Rhein, Germany Torre Neruda, Guadalajara, Mexico Berggruen Hotels, India OPAC housing, Paris, France Derek Lam, New York, New York

Architecture Awards

1998 The Prize of Architectural Institute of Japan, Tokyo, Japan

2000 Erich Schelling Architekturpreis, Kalsruhe, Germany

2002 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, American Academy of Arts & Letters, N.Y, USA Architecture Award of Salzburg Vincenzo Scamozzi, Salzburg, Austria

2004 Golden Lion for the most remarkable work in the exhibition Metamorph in the 9th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia 46th Mainichi Newspaper Arts Award (Architecture Category) The Rolf Schock Prize in category of visual arts, Sweden

2006 The Prize of Architectural Insititute of Japan, Tokyo, Japan

2007 Premio Mario Pani 2007 (The Mario Pani Award), Mexico City, Mexico The Kunstpreis Berlin (Berlin Art Prize), Berlin, Germany

Website: www.sanaa.co.jp

Architecture Studios

Japanese Buildings

Comments / photos for the SANAA architects page welcome.