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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism The life and work of Arata Isozaki

A

B

Figure 4. Sketch for the National Library Qatar, 2002. Source: Courtesy of Figure 6. (A and B) Silkscreen prints of the Museum of Contemporary
Arata Isozaki and Associates. Art, MOCA (1981 – 1986), 1984, Los Angeles, California, USA. Source:
Courtesy of Arata Isozaki and Associates.
A

Figure 5. Sketch for City in the Air, Tokyo, 1960. Source: Courtesy of B
Arata Isozaki and Associates.

several generations of younger designers who flourished
after working in his atelier. His patronage and his practice
anticipated changes and pushed the field of architecture
forward at each step. Hubertus Adam noted that “The
tireless networker and intellectual architect masterfully
combined his own and the foreign, tradition, convention,
and innovation” (Adam, 2023). Isozaki regularly appeared
as a speaker at numerous conferences. His contributions
to the ANY conferences of the 1990s, the most important
forum of international architectural discourse at the time Figure 7. (A and B) Arata Isozaki sketching (1931 – 2022), photos around
(organized by Peter Eisenman), were particularly relevant. 2019. Source: Courtesy of Office for the Pritzker Prize in Architecture.
Twice, he was Commissioner of the Japanese pavilion at
the Venice Biennale of Architecture. Bernard Tschumi was able to win the Parc de la Villette

Since the construction of the MOCA in Los Angeles, competition in Paris. In Hong Kong in 1983, as a daring
Isozaki has been increasingly active in the Western juror, he paved the way for an international career for
world – as an architect, but also as a mediator, interlocutor, the then-unknown young architect Zaha Hadid by her
and influential juror in competitions. Frequently invited winning the Hong Kong Peak sports club competition.
as a guest juror at competitions, he sought out the most Conversely, in addition to his practical work as an
unconventional projects. Thanks to his commitment that architect, he campaigned vehemently for the promotion of

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 8 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.353