Arata Isozaki, the 'emperor of Japanese architecture',
winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2019,
has died at the age of 91. This was announced by Spanish media, citing a spokesman for his Barcelona studio.
Among his works, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona for the 1992 Games, in Italy the Allianz Tower (the "Dritto") in Milan with the Italian Andrea Maffei and the Palasport Olimpico in Turin and the project for the Loggia degli Uffizi, never built.
"I learn with great regret of the passing of Arata Isozaki, a great 20th century architect of international renown. His abstract and clear language was partly inspired by his profound knowledge of Italian Renaissance architecture".
Thus the director of the Uffizi Galleries
Eike Schmidt
expresses his condolences for the death of Arata Isozaki.
"The news of the death of the architect Isozaki grieves the entire international world of culture and architecture and is welcomed in Florence with deep regret".
Thus, in a note, the
mayor of Florence Dario Nardella
learned of the news of the death of Arata Isozaki, the archistar who designed the unfinished Loggia of the Uffizi.
"Notwithstanding the age-old affair that links the great Japanese master to the Uffizi project - continues the mayor -, Florence, homeland of the greatest architects in the history of humanity, cannot fail to mourn this great personality who scattered Japan and the whole world of extraordinary works".
"I hope that our country will have the intelligence and sensitivity to remember him adequately", concluded Nardella.