watch: pritzker prize celebrates david chipperfield in new documentary video from athens

The Pritzker Prize SHARES VIDEO HONORING DAVID CHIPPERFIELD

The Pritzker Prize has released a new documentary-style video celebrating Sir David Alan Chipperfield, the 2023 laureate of the prestigious architecture award. ‘A better and more beautiful world must focus on the challenges of environment and equality. Architectural achievement independent of these concerns will have less meaning, which I believe will affect our very sense of what we will judge to be beautiful,’ remarks the 52nd Laureate during the ceremony, held at the Ancient Agora of Athens, Greece. ‘We must become increasingly committed to the idea that architecture has purpose, and that the architectural community can play a bigger role in the way we plan our future.’

In addition to speeches by Mareva Grabowski, Tom Pritzker, Chairman of Hyatt Foundation, and Alejandro Aravena, Jury Chair and 2016 Laureate, the video also brings together several previous Pritzker Laureates, who discuss the timelessness, harmony and discerning qualities of Chipperfield’s projects. Among them, Rafael Moneo, Norman Foster, Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, and Francis Kéré recall personal experiences within Chipperfield’s buildings, which span over four decades and more than one hundred projects throughout Asia, Europe and North America. ‘If I was to use one word [to describe Chipperfield’s work], it would be ‘classical’. I think that’s really refreshing and it’s a really solid presence in contemporary work – that somebody makes work that has that classical sense of the ancient past and tradition, and look[s] to the future,’ says Shelley McNamara.

Sir David Alan Chipperfield CH | all images courtesy of The Hyatt Foundation/The Pritzker Architecture Prize

A SPECIAL CEREMONY HELD AT THE Ancient Agora of Athens

The recently-released video features fragments from the 2023 ceremony, which took place on May 24 at the Ancient Agora of Athens. Located to the northwest of the Acropolis, this space served as a gathering place for social, religious, cultural and political assembly over many millennia and hosted philosophers Socrates, Plato, Diogenes of Sinope and Crates of Thebes. ‘It’s not just the Jury of the Pritzker Prize that honors him. It’s this very place that honors him,’ Tom Pritzker, Chairman of Hyatt Foundation, reflects moments before awarding Chipperfield with the bronze medallion. ‘Sir David is an architect of his time and of his place, in whom old images still live.’

In his own speech, Chipperfield begins with an emphasis on collectivism.‘Receiving this prize is an enormous honor and I can’t disguise the pleasure it gives me,’ shares the 52nd laureate. ‘While I’m more than happy to enjoy this accolade, I’m painfully aware that the disproportionate amount of recognition that I have received is founded on the efforts and talents of so many others. Architecture practice depends not only on creative talent but just as much on the collaboration of individuals.’ The British architect goes on to individually acknowledge the leadership teams of his five international offices in London, Berlin, Milan, Shanghai and Santiago de Compostela, and his non-profit research initiative in Galicia, to an ovation.

the Ancient Agora of Athens, the location of the 2023 Pritzker Prize ceremony

PAST LAUREATES AND PRITZKER JURORS CELEBRATE CHIPPERFIELD’S WORK

Alongside contributions by past laureates, the Pritzker Prize’s documentary-style video also features insights by jurors Barry Bergdoll, Deborah Berke, Stephen Breyer, André Corrêa do Lago, Kazuyo Sejima (2010 Laureate) Benedetta Tagliabue and Wang Shu (2012 Laureate), and Manuela Lucá-Dazio, Executive Director of the Prize. ‘I would describe his work as a brilliant constant. David Chipperfield’s work is so elegant and so subtle…We don’t need flashes of bravado everywhere. We actually need elegance and understatement everywhere,’ shares American architect Deborah Berke. The 2024 Laureate will be announced next March, commemorating the 46th edition of the Prize.

Chipperfield on stage alongside Tom Pritzker, Mareva Grabowski, Manuela Lucá-Dazio, and Alejandro Aravena

Sir David Alan Chipperfield CH, just moments before officially accepting the 2023 Pritzker Architecture Prize, with his wife, Dr. Evelyn Stern | photo by Nikolas Kominis for The Hyatt Foundation/The Pritzker Architecture Prize