Australian architect Glenn Murcutt has been named the Praemium Imperiale architecture laureate, an honour awarded annually by the Japan Art Association.
Murcutt, who was described in the citation as an "architect ahead of his time", became the first Australian to win the Praemium Imperiale.
Awarded annually, the global arts prize recognises laureates in "fields of achievement not covered by the Nobel Prizes", with winners chosen in architecture, painting, music and sculpture this year all receiving five million yen (£100,000).
Last year's awards were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Glenn Murcutt has designed a series of homes in Australia including Marie Short House
Murcutt, who was also the first Australian to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2002 and the AIA Gold Medal in 2009, is one of the country's best-known architects. "Glenn Murcutt is an architect ahead of his time ? an architect who has spent his career creating modest, environmentally responsible buildings rooted in the climate and tradition of his native Australia," said the Praemium Imperiale citation.
"Echoing the Aboriginal phrase 'touch the land lightly', his architecture has a poetic beauty and lightness, in harmony with nature, while at the same time the rationality of modernist architecture and ecological wisdom shine through."
The Australian Islamic Centre is among his recent projects
Born in London to Australian parents in 1936, Murcutt moved to...