This outstanding Japanese architect, a student of Kenzo Tange, studied and worked in the United States for over ten years at the beginning of his career, which expanded his range of creative guidelines. Joining the metabolic group in 1960, even before his final return to Tokyo (1965), Maki was more interested not in giant modular structures, but in the human-scale problem in large structures - which he called "collective form".
Its buildings are characterized by a subtle play of shapes, light and shadow, color and material; even facades made of metal panels and mesh from Fumihiko Maki acquire ephemerality and grace, a kind of "indescribable atmosphere" that is even difficult to reflect in a photograph.
For Maki, the AIA Gold Medal is far from the first major international award. He is the recipient of the Wolf Prize (1988), the Pritzker Prize (1993) and the International Union of Architects Gold Medal (1993), as well as the Praemium Imperiale (1999).
