Kazuyo Sejima & Martin Steinmann

Few international awards distinguish the theory and practice of the profession as impartially as the Erich Schelling Architekturpreis, which biennially acknowledges the career of an architect along with that of a critic or historian. Instituted in 1992 in honor of the architect and professor who in the postwar period helped define the physiognomy of the German city of Karlsruhe, its winners make a short but solid list that includes Wolfgang Pehnt and Stanislaus von Moos among the theorists, and Peter Zumthor and Zaha Hadid among the practitioners. On this occasion, a jury graced by Wilfried Wang and Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani selected the Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima (1956) – author of a social housing development in Gifu, the Kumano Kado Museum in Nakanechi, and the multimedia art workshops in Ogaki – and the Swiss scholar Martin Steinmann – chair professor of architectural theory at the ETH of Lausanne, editor of the magazine Archithese, and acknowledged expert on the CIAM congresses –to receive both distinctions. The awards come with DM 30,000 and DM 20,000, respectively.