Fumihiko Maki

Fumihiko Maki (*1928) has been a formative figure in Japanese architecture since the late 1950s and is considered one of its most important living representatives today. He studied under Kenzo Tange at the University of Tokyo from 1948 to 1952 and then at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. After working for Skidmore, Owings and Merril in New York (1954-55) and for Josep Lluis Sert in Cambridge (1955-58), he joined the Metabolists in 1960 and began an influential independent teaching, publishing and design career. Maki's most important buildings include the Hillside Terrace project (Tokyo, 1969-1992), the Spiral (Tokyo, 1985), the Makuhari Messe (Chiba, 1989) and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, 1993). Maki was awarded the Prizker Prize in 1993, the Praemium Imperiale in 1999 and the AIA Gold Medal last year for his contributions to the theory and practice of architecture.