One of the world's highest concentrations of Pritzker Prize winners is at USI's Academy of Architecture

They call it the "Nobel Prize of architecture": it is the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the industry's most prestigious accolade. A prize that enjoys a particularly close bond with the USI Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio. Here is a look at how and why.

Since the Pritzker Architecture Prize was established, as many as four laureates have been part of the academic community at USI's Academy of Architecture: in 2009 the award went to Peter Zumthor, in 2020 to Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, while in 2022 it was awarded to Diébédo Francis Kéré, who just a few years earlier had left the Academy to take up a chair at TU München. All of them have been, or still are, permanent professors at the Academy (full or tenured professors) – a fact that places the Ticino institution among the architecture schools with the highest concentration of Pritzker winners in the world, and confirms the international role of Italian-speaking Switzerland in contemporary architectural education and debate.

We discuss the relationship between the Prize and the academic world with Manuela Lucá-Dazio, Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

The Pritzker Prize is often dubbed the "Nobel Prize of architecture". What qualities distinguish an architect worthy of this recognition?

"Since its inception in 1979, the Pritzker Architecture Prize has remained firmly anchored to its original mission: the Prize is awarded to living architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of talent, vision, and commitment, and has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture. For nearly five decades, these two fundamental guiding principles have steered the deliberations of successive juries. Their decisions, while influenced by shifting perspectives and an ever-evolving global context, have remained grounded in a single, indivisible criterion of excellence across both parameters. The Pritzker Architecture Prize bestows far more than an accolade: it entrusts its laureates with an even greater responsibility – to act as catalysts in their own historical moment, helping to guide the profession and the ways we live, work, and interact with the environment around us. A look at the laureates reveals how each has become an enduring benchmark: simultaneously a profound expression of their time and an anticipation of what is to come. In 2009, the jury highlighted that Peter Zumthor had demonstrated how architecture can be both humble and extraordinary, rooted in material reality yet capable of evoking deep emotions, centred on the quality of the human experience and deeply inspired by its geographical, historical, and cultural context. In this sense, his work represents one of the most coherent interpretations of the idea of architecture, enriching both humanity and the built environment.

More recently, global priorities have shifted further towards environmental responsibility, social equity, and community engagement. Consequently, the Prize has celebrated architects capable of responding to these urgent challenges with vision, humility, and integrity, recognised not only for building communities but for nurturing deep, inclusive, and sustainable relationships within and between them.

The deliberations of the past decade reflect an increasingly broad and inclusive conception of architectural excellence. Practices once considered marginal are now recognised as central to the discipline's future. Francis Kéré has redefined the potential of architecture in contexts of extreme scarcity; Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have championed transformation through a radical sobriety; Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta have imbued their work with a deeply poetic environmental sensitivity; Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara have driven an intrinsically humanistic vision of space and society; Alejandro Aravena has demonstrated architecture's capacity to act as a progressive and socially engaged force; Liu Jiakun has used memory as an infrastructure to create buildings that serve life, community, and continuity. In recognising such design approaches, the Pritzker Architecture Prize continues to evolve, staying true to its founding ideals while reaffirming the enduring relevance and responsibility of architecture in helping to build a fairer, more resilient world."

Dr Lucá-Dazio, from your perspective, how significant is the presence of four Pritzker Prize winners among the permanent faculty of a single architecture school? Where does this place the institution on the international stage?

"The presence of Peter Zumthor, Yvonne Farrell, Shelley McNamara, and Diébédo Francis Kéré within the faculty of the Academy of Architecture of USI perfectly expresses, in my view, how the Prize's founding principles resonate with the School's humanistic, interdisciplinary, and innovative vision. The Pritzker Architecture Prize aims to continually broaden the current architectural debate through the most inclusive and diverse participation possible, to impact the future of the discipline.

Architects have both the privilege and the responsibility to shape the built environment. However, they do not work in isolation. They depend on clients. And clients are not just wealthy patrons or property developers: they are policymakers, institutions and, above all, communities. It is therefore a necessary collective prerogative to know how to generate an informed, ethical, and responsible demand. In its essence, architecture is the space we inhabit and interact with every single day. Its sustainability depends on this interdependence.

I believe that the vision and work of Peter Zumthor, Yvonne Farrell, Shelley McNamara, and Diébédo Francis Kéré, applied to the educational path and teaching model of the Academy of Architecture of USI in Mendrisio, make a formidable contribution to expanding both the critical and practical 'toolbox' available to students and young architects."

The USI Academy of Architecture - founded in 1996 by architect Mario Botta - is a relatively small, young school: it has 844 students and just turned 30. From your point of view, can it be considered an exceptional case on the international stage?

"In the past, during my long previous experience as managing director of the Visual Arts and Architecture sectors of the Venice Biennale, I frequently had the opportunity to collaborate with faculty, researchers, and students from USI's Academy of Architecture. The approach – both in research and in project presentation – has always proved to be open yet thorough, grounded in advanced technical and scientific practice alongside a deep humanistic vision. In my view, this precise ethos of breaking down educational barriers to create an open, interdisciplinary learning model is becoming increasingly relevant, especially coming from a relatively small, young, and international institution. At a time when growing imbalances and inequalities – social, environmental, political – and the emergence of artificial intelligence (no longer simply a technological innovation, but a true creative agent and a new mental infrastructure) demand a critical review and adaptation of traditional educational tools, I believe the real challenge lies in developing increasingly transdisciplinary skills, both theoretical and practical, and in overcoming the increasingly obsolete distinction between scientific and humanistic culture. At USI Academy of Architecture, this process seems to me to be already well underway."