Dominique Perrault awarded Japanese "Praemium Imperiale"
© 2015 EPFL – Alain Herzog
The 2015 Praemium Imperiale in the category architecture has been awarded to Dominique Perrault, professor at EPFL and the architect behind the campus’s BI and ME buildings.
Every year, the Japanese Art Association recognizes the achievements of outstanding contributions in the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture, music and theatre or film on behalf of the imperial family of Japan. This year, the award in the category architecture will be presented to Dominique Perrault, the architect who designed the National Library of France and the Court of Justice of the European Union, and further afield, the Fukoku Tower in Osaka, Japan, and the Ewha Women’s University Campus Center in Seoul, South Korea. Dominique Perrault has been a professor of architecture at EPFL since 2013, where he directs the Laboratory of Underground Architecture.
As a laureate of the Praemium Imperiale, Perrault will be joining the ranks of illustrious architects including David Chipperfield, Toyo Ito, Peter Zumthor, Oscar Niemeyer, Normal Foster, Rem Koolhaas, Álvaro Siza, and Tadao Ando. The award, which consists of a gold medal and a monetary prize of 15,000,000 yen (around 120,000 CHF), will be presented by Prince Hitachi of Japan at an award ceremony in Tokyo on October 21, 2015, where Dominique Perrault will deliver a commemorative lecture.