Peter Eisenman & SANAA

In 1985, after a long and much admired career as teacher and theorist and only five years after establishing his studio in New York, Eisenman received a first prize lion (made of stone at that time) at the Third International Architecture Biennial of Venice for his Romeo and Juliet project. Nineteen years later, with a career full of accomplishments and a vast architectural production, Eisenman once again received a lion, this time a Golden Lion, for the lifetime achievement. The New York architect, admirer of Italy and of its architecture – especially that of Giuseppe Terragni, whose work he has studied in-depth –, received the award with an unconventional statement that brought together hisdevotion for the architecture of Borromini and Piranesi and his passion for soccer and the azurra team of Paolo Rossi. The other Golden Lion, for the most remarkable work in the Architecture section, went to the Japanese studio of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA) for their recently completed Twenty-First Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa and for the still uncertain IVAM extension.