Read Architect’s Newspaper article by Professor Ken Tadashi Oshima, co-chair of the UW Japan Studies Program. Prof. Oshima was in Versailles, France for the 2019 Pritzker Architecture Prize award ceremony where Arata Isozaki was honored for his lifetime achievement in architecture. “When I was old enough to begin an understanding of the world,” writes Isozaki, “my hometown was burned down. Across the shore, the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, so I grew up on ground zero. It was in complete ruins, and there was no architecture, no buildings and not even a city. Only barracks and shelters surrounded me. So, my first experience of architecture was the void of architecture, and I began to consider how people might rebuild their homes and cities.”
Image: Arata Isozaki (Courtesy The Hyatt Foundation / The Pritzker Architecture Prize)