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Alexandra Lange|Essays

March 28, 2010

My Favorite SANAA

It is thrilling that SANAA has won the 2010 Pritzker Prize for many reasons: the second woman, the second partnership, and most of all their beautiful work. As I said the other day, hardly the dark horse. Like last year’s winner, Peter Zumthor, the jury’s choice suggests a desire for pause, as an architectural as well as a subjective quality. (Speaking of architect’s websites, check out their practically nonexistent one.) I loved this installation when I saw it on Naoshima: reflective lilypads that sway slightly overhead, growing out of a traditional village courtyard.

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By Alexandra Lange

Alexandra Lange is an architecture critic and author, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism, awarded for her work as a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab. She is currently the architecture critic for Curbed and has written extensively for Design Observer, Architect, New York Magazine, and The New York Times. Lange holds a PhD in 20th-century architecture history from New York University. Her writing often explores the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and design, with a focus on how the built environment shapes everyday life. She is also a recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary from AIGA, an honor she shares with Design Observer’s Editor-in-Chief, Ellen McGirt.

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