Japanese firm famed for ‘sustainable’ design receives top architecture honour A Japanese architecture firm which has pioneered “sustainable, user-centred design” has been awarded one of the world’s highest honours for architecture.
Riba president and chairman of the 2025 Riba Honours Committee, Muyiwa Oki, said: “Exemplifying an unassuming yet impactful leadership in the evolving practice and theory of architecture, SANAA’s designs demonstrate that architecture can balance functionality with profound elegance.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) has announced that SANAA, a collaborative practice of Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, has received the 2025 Royal Gold Medal for architecture.
Other notable works over the course of their nearly three-decade career include Dior Omotesando Store in Japan, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, the Zollverein School of Design in Germany, the Louvre-Lens in France and Sydney Modern Museum in Australia.
Their architectural projects have sprung up across the world from the New Museum in New York, distinctive for its stacked, cubic design, to the Rolex Learning Centre that ‘flows’ alongside the shores of Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland.
