SANAA: Ten Projects

Photographed by Iwan Baan

Explore the pioneering sustainable, user-centred architecture of SANAA, RIBA’s 2025 Royal Gold Medallist

RIBA has awarded the 2025 Royal Gold Medal to SANAA, the collaborative practice of Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. Founded in 1995, Tokyo-based SANAA’s work has become a standard for creating meaningful, culturally insightful, and elegant designs, highly distinctive in style and featuring a minimal approach to architecture, arranging lightweight materials into abstract or playful spatial compositions.

To celebrate this year’s Royal Gold Medal, RIBA will present a series of ten photographic studies by SANAA’s long-term collaborator and friend Iwan Baan. For over 20 years, Baan has photographed SANAA’s work around the world in his trademark style, documenting the life and interactions that occur in and around the buildings and placing the architecture within the cultural context of its surroundings. Featured projects will include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan; the Rolex Learning Center in Switzerland; New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York; and the Louvre-Lens in France.

The Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by the Monarch each year and is awarded to recognise the contribution and influence made by an architect or practice who have directly or indirectly advanced the profession of architecture. Previous winners include Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Yasmeen Lari.

Find out more about this year’s medallist.

Opening times and location

RIBA North + Tate Liverpool

Opens 1 May 2025 to 1 June 2025.

Monday to Sunday including bank holidays: 10am to 5.50pm

Check our opening times and what else you can do when you visit.

Join us to celebrate SANAA’s RIBA Royal Gold Medal with a special screening of Tokyo Ride on 8 May 2025, 7pm to 9pm

SANAA: Ten Projects will also be exhibited at RIBA's Practice Space, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD, 1 May to 31 May 2025. Plan your visit to 66 Portland Place.