Christian de Portzamparc to Receive the 2026 Createurs Design Awards Lifetime Achievement Award

"Christian de Portzamparc has been announced as the recipient of the 2026 Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award by the Créateurs Design Awards (CDA). The recognition honors his influence on architecture and urban planning, situating him among a lineage of practitioners whose work has shaped both the built environment and cultural discourse. The ceremony will be held in Paris on January 17, 2026, where de Portzamparc will accept the award in person."

"His return to practice in 1979 brought a distinctive approach to urban design, exemplified in the Haute-Formes housing project in Paris. Rejecting tower block schemes, he developed an alternative model organized around squares, arcades, and smaller buildings, laying the groundwork for his concept of the "open block," which reconsiders the urban fabric through a balance of public and private space."

"He became the first French architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1994 and has been recognized with the Grand Prix National de l'Architecture (1993), the Grand Prix de l'Urbanisme (2004), and the Praemium Imperiale for Architecture (2018). Notable works include the Paris Opera's Dance School (1987), Musée Bourdelle (1990), the Cité de la Musique (1994), the French Embassy in Berlin (2003), the Musée Hergé in Belgium (2009), and One57 in New York (2013), which was briefly the tallest residential tower in Manhattan."

Christian de Portzamparc will receive the 2026 Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award from the Créateurs Design Awards and will accept it in Paris on January 17, 2026. Born in 1944 in Casablanca, he studied at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Eugène Beaudouin and George Candilis. During the 1970s he questioned modernist limits and collaborated with sociologists to study neighborhoods and cities. Returning to practice in 1979, he developed the Haute-Formes housing project and the "open block" concept that balances public and private space through squares, arcades, and smaller buildings. Major honors include the Pritzker Prize (1994) and Praemium Imperiale (2018).

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