A Japanese architect and designer of the master plan of the University of Central Asia (UCA) has won the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 2019.
Arata Isozaki is the 46th winner of the Pritzker prize which carries $100,000 cash, says a statement issued by the university.
The prize will be awarded at a ceremony at the Chateau de Versailles in France in May.
Among Isozaki’s over 100 notable architectural designs are the Kyoto Concert Hall in Japan, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.
He is also the designer of the master plan of the University of Central Asia, and its three campuses located in Khorog (Tajikistan), Naryn (Kyrgyzstan), and Tekeli (Kazakhstan), setting a new standard for university design in the Central Asian region.
UCA’s design has received widespread attention for responsiveness to its mountain locations, and the environment it creates for study, contemplation, and play.
The annual Pritzker Prize was established in 1979 by the Pritzker Family of Chicago, and is awarded to “an architect who has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity through the art of architecture.”
The winner is selected by an independent jury of five to nine professionals, and past winners include architects Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, and Zaha Hadid.
In 2001 Isozaki also served on the Master Jury of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, which carries over $1,000,000 cash and is awarded to winners every three years for projects that set new standards of excellence in architecture, planning practices, historic preservation, and landscape architecture, the statement concluded.