David Chipperfield wins Pritzker

Architecture Prize 2023

Lizzie Crook | 7 March 2023

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British architect David Chipperfield has been

awarded this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize for
his "understated but transformative" body of work
that spans four decades.
Chipperfield is the 52nd winner of the prestigious
Pritzker Architecture Prize, which is considered
the most significant award in international
architecture.

Top image: David Chipperfield has won the 2023

Pritzker Architecture Prize. Above: the River and
Rowing Museum was an early major project.
Photo courtesy of Richard Bryant /Arcaid

The 2023 jury hailed him for "steering clear of

trends" and recognised his "commitment to an
architecture of understated but transformative
civic presence".
"Such a capacity to distill and perform meditated
design operations is a dimension of sustainability
that has not been obvious in recent years," read
the jury's citation. "Sustainability as pertinence
not only eliminates the superfluous but is also the
first step to creating structures able to last,
physically and culturally."

More recently David Chipperfield Architects

created the James Simon Galerie in Berlin. Photo
by Simon Menges

Born in London in 1953, Chipperfield began his

career after graduating from the Kingston School
of Art in 1976 and later from the Architectural
Association in 1977.
He worked for fellow Pritzker Architecture Prize-
laureates Norman Foster and Richard Rogers,
before establishing his eponymous studio David
Chipperfield Architects in London in 1985. Today,
his studio has offices in Berlin, Milan, Shanghai
and Santiago de Compostela.

Chipperfield is the architect behind Museo Jumex

in Mexico City. Photo by Simon Menges

In response to the news, the architect said he was

"so overwhelmed to receive this extraordinary
honour and to be associated with the previous
recipients".
"I take this award as an encouragement to
continue to direct my attention not only to the
substance of architecture and its meaning but also
to the contribution that we can make as architects
to address the existential challenges of climate
change and societal inequality," Chipperfield
added.
One of David Chipperfield Architects' first major
projects was the linear River and Rowing Museum
on the River Thames, which he completed with his
studio in 1997.
Cementing him as a go-to architect for civic and
cultural buildings, this led his studio on to
creating landmark buildings including the
Hepworth in Wakefield in 2011, Saint Louis Art
Museum in Missouri in 2013, the Museo Jumex in
Mexico City in 2013 and James Simon Galerie in
Berlin in 2018.

His studio specialises in renovations and restored

the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Photo by
Simon Menges

Other key projects by David Chipperfield

Architects in the public realm are the Veles e
Vents in Valencia in 2006, the Turner
Contemporary in Margate in 2011 and the
Inagawa Cemetery Chapel and Visitor Center in
2017.
His studio has also delved into offices and housing
typologies with projects including the
Amorepacific Headquarters in Seoul in 2017 and
the Hoxton Press residences in London in 2018.

Read:
"I don't believe I'm that
talented" says Pritzker
winner David Chipperfield

Renovations are another speciality of David

Chipperfield Architects, which has seen it revamp
the likes of Berlin's Neues Museum originally by
Friedrich August Stüler in 2009 and the Neue
Nationalgalerie designed by Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe in 2021.
Elsewhere, the studio is currently working on a
rammed-earth extension for the National
Archaeological Museum in Athens and the
refurbishment of the iconic Jenners department
store in Edinburgh.

The Hepworth gallery in Wakefield is among his

studio's notable projects. Photo by Iwan Baan

Alongside the Pritzker Architecture Prize,

Chipperfield has received several other accolades
and honours including the RIBA Royal Gold
Medal in 2010, the Mies van der Rohe Award in
2011 and the Japan Art Association's Praemium
Imperiale for Architecture in 2013.
In 2004, he was appointed as Commander of the
Order of the British Empire. Later, he was
knighted in 2010 before being appointed to the
Order of the Companions of Honour in 2021.
While practising as an architect, Chipperfield is an
author and educator at various institutes
including the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart
and Yale University. He also curated the 13th
Biennale Architettura in 2012.
He will be awarded the prize at the 2023 Pritzker
Prize ceremony in Athens in May.

Chipperfield created the Amorepacific

Headquarters in Seoul. Photo courtesy of Noshe

This year's jury was chaired by architect Alejandro

Aravena and consisted of architects Kazuyo
Sejima, Deborah Berke, Wang Shu and Benedetta
Tagliabue.
Historian Barry Bergdoll was also on the panel,
alongside critic André Aranha Corrêa do Lago,
lawyer Stephen Gerald Breyer and Pritzker
Architecture Prize executive director Manuela
Lucá-Dazio.
Last year, the Pritzker Architecture Prize was
given to Diébédo Francis Kéré, who was the first
African architect to win the award. Other winners
of the award include architects Frank Gehry,
Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid and Arata Isozaki.
Read more: Architecture David Chipperfield
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