Kazuyo Sejima, born in 1956 in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, studied architecture at the Japan Women's University. She then joined Toyo Ito & Associates before founding architectural firm Kazuyo Sejima & Associates in 1987 and SANAA architectural firm in 1995 with Ryue Nishizawa. Since 2001 she is a lecturer at the University of Keio.
Ryue Nishizawa, born in 1966 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, studied architecture at Yokohama National University, then worked at Kazuyo Sejima & Associates and founded Kazuyo Sejima architectural firm SANAA in 1995. In 1997, he also founded the Office of Ryue Nishizawa and since 2001, he teaches at Yokohama National University.
In 2010, SANAA were awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize.