Kazuyo Sejima is a Japanese architect. After studying at Japan Women's University and working at the office of Toyo Ito, in 1987, she founded Kazuyo Sejima and Associates. In 1995, she founded the Tokyo-based firm SANAA together with her former employee Ryue Nishizawa. In 2010, Sejima was appointed director of architecture sector for the Venice Biennale, which she curated for the 12th Annual International Architecture Exhibition. She was the first woman ever selected for this position. In 2010, she was awarded the Pritzker Prize, together with Ryue Nishizawa. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have worked on several projects in Germany, France, England, the Netherlands, United States, and Spain. Many of their designs like the New Museum in the Bowery District in New York City as well as their Glass Pavilion for the Toledo Museum of Art involve glass and a space open to the world around it. Such design element can be found abundantly in their designs. Sejima creates her designs with clean modernist elements. They usually include slick, clean, and shiny surfaces made of glass, marble, and metals. 

January 1st, 1956 in Ibaraki Prefecture (Age 68)