David Chipperfield has been nominated as the 2023 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, regarded internationally as architecture’s highest honor.

Founded in 1979 by the late Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, Cindy, the honor is awarded annually to a living architect whose built work has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.

In its citation, the jury states that “The careful, well-crafted, precise, and calm responses he has offered to the goals aspired to in his buildings can only originate in a deep and sustained knowledge of the discipline. Yet, those responses are never self-centred, nor do they serve in any way as art for art’s sake: rather, they always remained focused on the higher purpose of the undertaking and on the pursuit of civic and public good.”

And follows, “David Chipperfield’s commitment to an architecture of understated but transformative civic presence and the definition – even through private commissions – of the public realm, is done always with austerity, avoiding unnecessary moves and steering clear of trends and fashions, all of which is a most relevant message to our contemporary society. Such a capacity to distil and perform meditated design operations is a dimension of sustainability that has not been obvious in recent years: sustainability as pertinence, not only eliminates the superfluous but is also the first step to creating structures able to last, physically and culturally.”

In response to his selection, David Chipperfield states, “I take this award as an encouragement to continue to direct my attention not only to the substance of architecture and its meaning but also to the contribution that we can make as architects to address the existential challenges of climate change and societal inequality. We know that, as architects, we can have a more prominent and engaged role in creating not only a more beautiful world but a fairer and more sustainable one too. We must rise to this challenge and help inspire the next generation to embrace this responsibility with vision and courage.”

David Chipperfield studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London before founding his own practice in 1985.

David has built a design methodology that is now used across four offices in London, Berlin, Milan, and Shanghai.

David Chipperfield is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and an honorary fellow of both the American Institute of Architects and the Bund Deutscher Architekten.

Among the accolades he has received are the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, awarded in 2009, and a knighthood for services to architecture in the UK and Germany, awarded in 2010.

In 2011 he received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, and in 2013, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association, both given in recognition of a lifetime’s work. He was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for his services to architecture in 2021.

In addition to design work, David Chipperfield has taught and lectured at schools of architecture worldwide. In 2012 he curated the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale under the title Common Ground.

He served as the mentor for architecture from 2016–17 for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

In 2017 he founded Fundación RIA, a private, non-profit entity that works towards meaningful economic, environmental, and cultural development in Galicia, Spain.

David Chipperfield has published numerous books and articles, including On Planning – A Thought Experiment (2018), a publication that explores and theorises the urban qualities of contemporary urban developments. He was the 2020 guest editor of Italian design magazine Domus.

The 2023 Pritzker Prize ceremony will be held in Athens, Greece this May.

The International Evaluation Committee has unanimously selected David Chipperfield Architects Berlin’s design for the extension of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens from a shortlist of ten following an international competition.

The proposal, which was developed in collaboration with Tombazis & Associates Architects, Wirtz International, wh-p ingenieure, and Werner Sobek, was presented at a press conference in the presence of the Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday 15 February.

The project will expand the existing neo-classical building through an extension of its plinth, a gesture that creates two levels of subterranean galleries and a raised roof garden while respecting the prominence of the original museum.

*Photography
Courtesy of David Chipperfield Architects