Kazuyo Sejima

Kazuyo Sejima is a Japanese architect who founded SANAA. She is a leading exponent of contemporary architecture. She earned a degree from the Japan Women’s University and worked in the studio of Toyo It0. She is known for a clean modernist design by using clean and shiny surfaces and use of squares and cubes. She uses natural light to create a fluid transition between interior and exterior. I admire how she uses traditional elements such as square boxes and how she combine traditional elements and modernistic elements. Her idea is not to initiate a complete rejection to tradition, but rather to challenge the conventional process of design.

One of her famous building, New Art Museum by SANAA is located in Lower Manhattan, NYC. The museum shows how she appreciates simple but strong concept by using traditional shape. Her work shows how contemporary architects do not have to use crazy shapes to make good space. The building shape reflects the surrounding urban box shaped buildings. She stacks the boxes on top of the other but makes variation of them through varying sixe and shifting them, which makes dynamicity and an attracting shape. Different from contemporary artists who uses fancy materials, she uses materials that may look moderate externally. However, her buildings encompasses her unique charisma that attracts people’s attention for buildings sharpness and use of essential elements for construction.

Link to New Art Museum

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“New Art Museum” by SANAA in Lower Manhattan, NYC