"I'm a kind of iguana. But I'm the kind of iguana that travels."
So says architect Ryue Nishizawa, one half of SANAA, the creative partnership he shares with Kazuyo Sejima, about the "Galapagos Syndrome" — the term used to describe Japan's relative isolation from global trends and the resulting incompatibility of things Japanese with the rest of the world. While the characterization may be apt for Japan's mobile phone industry, in the world of contemporary architecture Japan is currently at an unprecedented peak of global acclaim and influence.
In the spotlight are Sejima and Nishizawa. For over 15 years, their collaboration as SANAA has been exceptionally fertile, producing a coherent body of work revealing a lucid vision of architecture as environment, and characterized by a spare, limpid beauty. Already the recipients of numerous honors, earlier this year SANAA was awarded the 2010 Pritzker Prize, popularly known as "Architecture's Nobel."