SANAA founders Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have been named the recipients of Le Prix Charlotte Perriand for 2025 by the Créateurs Design Association & Awards.
Sejima and Nishizawa were chosen as the year's winners for being "at the forefront of architectural innovation" and in recognition of their "minimalist yet profound designs", said Créateurs Design Association & Awards (CDA).
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have won Le Prix Charlotte Perriand. Illustration by Yohei Sugiyama
The 2025 award marks the fourth edition of the competition, which was launched in 2021 by the CDA to spotlight architecture and design trailblazers and honour the legacy of French modernist Charlotte Perriand.
It is the first time the prize, also known as the Charlotte Perriand Award, has been awarded to two people. The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art is among their notable works. Photo by SANAA
Sejima and Nishizawa were born in Japan in 1956 and 1966, respectively. Sejima studied at Japan Women's University, completing an architecture master's degree in 1981, before working for Toyo Ito and Associates.
In 1987 she started her own practice, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates, where she employed Nishizawa while he was studying architecture at Yokohama National University.

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The pair founded SANAA in Tokyo in 1995. Since then, the studio has ...