The Praemium Imperiale is being awarded for the 27th time this year: the awards are determined by the Japan Art Association, and the patrons of the award are members of the imperial family. Therefore, on October 21, 2015 in Tokyo, five laureates of their medals will be awarded by Prince Hitachi, the younger brother of Emperor Akihito. The awardees will also receive cash prizes of 15 million yen each.
The organizers of the award noted that the work of Dominique Perrault is always closely related to the environment - cultural, physical, historical. The architect himself pays special attention to the role of free space in cities, calling his goal to improve its quality. He also calls for designing new buildings not as closed objects, but as being in "resonance" with the urban or natural environment.
In connection with the award of the Praemium Imperiale, among the laureates of which are the largest architects of our time, from Fry Otto and James Sterling to Stephen Hall and David Chipperfield, Dominique Perrault emphasized that the task of architects today is to expand the boundaries of the profession - geographical and typological - with the help of research and work in the poorest countries in the world. Architects, he believes, should think not only about environmental problems, "protecting the planet", but also about "protecting humanity living on this planet."
As in previous years, Praemium Imperiale was awarded in five nominations. Dominique Perrault was awarded, of course, as an architect, the Japanese Tadanori Yokoo became the laureate-artist, Wolfgang Leib from Germany became the sculptor (although his work with pollen is still difficult to attribute to sculpture), the pianist Mitsuko Uchida was awarded in the musical nomination, in the field of theater and cinema - the French ballerina Sylvie Guillem.
