The names of this year's laureates were announced by representatives of the Japan Arts Association at a reception at the official residence of the Japanese Ambassador in Berlin. Each of them will be awarded 15 million yen (about $ 163,000) on October 22 this year at a ceremony in Tokyo.
According to the organizers of the award, Zaha Hadid's buildings form a “window into a fantastic landscape” made up of intertwining curves, sharp corners and straight lines. They also noted the uniqueness of her creative path: Hadid became famous long before the first implementation of her project - the Vitra fire station in Germany (1993) - and since then has gone from a "paper architect" to a "star" on a global scale, building buildings according to all over the world.
Along with Hadid, Praemium Imperiale was awarded to playwright Tom Stoppard, photographer Hiroshi Sigimoto (he was awarded in the nomination that had always been awarded to painters), land art master Richard Long (awarded in the sculpture nomination), pianist Alfred Brendel. This year can be seen as a victory for Great Britain: all laureates except Sigimoto live and work in the United Kingdom (although only Long was born there).
