Rafael Moneo wins 2017 Praemium Imperiale Award

A few months after winning the inaugural Soane Medal, Spanish architect Rafael Moneo was named the architecture medalist for the Japan Art Association's 2017 Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award. Comparable to the Nobel Peace Prize in prestige, the Praemium Award celebrates extraordinary achievement in the fields of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film. Recipients also get a cash prize of 15 million yen.

Moneo and the rest of the 2017 laureates — dancer/performing artist Mikhail Baryshnikov, world music star Youssou N’Dour, visual artist Shirin Neshat, and sculptor El Anatsui — will be presented with their awards during a formal ceremony in Tokyo on October 18.

Also, the Japan Art Association awarded the 2017 Grant for Young Artists to Lebanon’s Zoukak Theatre Company and Cultural Association, a collective that explores the country's most pressing social and humanitarian challenges through theater.

“Born on May 9, 1937 in Tudela, Navarra, Spain, Rafael Moneo is greatly admired for his design approach, which involves looking at the specific conditions of each location to ensure that his buildings blend effortlessly into the city landscape, while simultaneously respecting the environment and establishing a clear identity and a connection to his creative vision.”

“One of his earliest projects, the National Museum of Roman Art (1986) in Mérida, Spain, established his reputation. Since then, he has completed many projects inside and outside of his native Spain. They include: the Madrid Atocha Railway Station (1992), the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (2002) in Los Angeles, and the Prado Museum Extension (2007).”

“Moneo is also an educator and theorist who has taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and other highly respected institutions. His awards include the 1996 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the 2003 RIBA Royal Gold Medal, and most recently, the inaugural Sloane Medal.”

In recent years, the Praemium Imperiale Award in architecture has been presented to Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Dominique Perrault, and Steven Holl, to name a few.