He got visibly flustered yesterday Pritzker Prize British architect sir David Alan Chipperfield at a special ceremony organized in Ancient Agora of Athens and became the 52nd member of a large family fellow artists of which were awarded the so-called “Nobel Prize”. architecture. “I feel I owe a huge debt to all those who have inspired me. I am grateful for this award, but even more so for the journey that brought me here,” the 69-year-old architect said in his greeting.

Chipperfield thanked his family, especially his children and wife – “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my wife,” he said – his fellow veterans in his offices around the world, as well as the younger ones who bring new ideas. to your team.

To a diverse audience that included leading international architects such as Norman Foster, Alejandro Aravena, Ann Lacaton, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, political leadership of the YPPOA, managers of museums and institutions, the British architect developed his rationale for architectural practice and the social responsibility it entails. He also revealed a confession – also a leading one – of the architect Renzo Piano, with whom he had spoken a few days before. Obviously, the two did not feel particularly “talented” as a unit, and this gave Chipperfield the opportunity to emphasize that “common purpose” was more important than “individual creativity.”

“The point is not to have a constant competition for who will build the best building. Instead of constantly designing a new world, let’s secure, protect and take care of what we have.”

British architect, internationally acclaimed for museums what he designed – the restoration of the Neues Museum in Berlin – one of his most famous projects – is gradually becoming familiar to us. As you know, David Chipperfield and the Greek architectural firm Topazis undertook a major expansion project. National Archaeological Museum.

Earlier on the stage of the ceremony, the founder of the institution, the American billionaire businessman Tom Pritzker, who established the award in 1979 with the aim of raising the level of architecture both on the part of architects and their clients, spoke. “Jerusalem, Rome and Athens – we owe Western civilization to these three cities,” he said.

Somehow Athens will have the first public work of a Nobel Prize winner in architecture.