Thresholds of Transformation: The Architect’s Evolving Role in the 1979-2024 Pritzker Prize

The Pritzker Architecture Prize has been awarded annually since 1979 to architects who have made inspiring contributions to society and architecture. This article aims to explore the evolving role of the architect in the social, political, and cultural context of architecture through discourse and content analysis. The discourse surrounding the Prize provides remarkable arguments about the underlying philosophy and principles that structure architectural thinking, practice, and the role ascribed to the architect. Based on the analysis of the Pritzker archival corpus, this study finds that the main principles of the Pritzker Prize have changed fundamentally over almost half a century. It points out the transformation of three critical thresholds in the role of the architect between the autonomous figure, the celebrity figure, and the socially engaged public figure. It seeks to uncover the underlying themes, narratives, and shifts that have shaped the profession over the past four decades, providing a comprehensive understanding of how architects have defined, responded to, and influenced the ever-changing built environment. It offers to construct a narrative of the changing role of the architect while reading how these changes reflect broader tendencies, privileges, or disparities in architecture and its response to global and local challenges.