Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa

Despite an age difference of ten years, the Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima (b. 1956) and Ryue Nishizawa (b. 1966) have developed an equal partnership that has projected them into the architectural limelight since founding their Tokyo-based firm SANAA in 1995. Renowned worldwide for such high-visibility commercial work as Tokyo’s translucent Christian Dior Omotesando Building and cultural landmarks like the circular 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the partners of SANAA are currently among the world’s most innovative—and thought-provoking—architects, winning the 2004 Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion award for their remarkable work as well as the high-profile commission for the New Museum of Contemporary Art, now under construction in New York City.