Who won the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize which is considered to be the Nobel Prize in architecture, announced in March 2013 in Los Angeles?

The correct answer is C) Toyo Ito. He received the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize, announced in March 2013. The prize is often called architecture's Nobel because it recognises a living architect's whole body of work, not a single building.

• Toyo Ito (correct): Japanese architect known for light, lightweight structures and the Sendai Mediatheque, which shows his interest in open, flexible public space. He also led reconstruction-related work after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.
• Renzo Piano (wrong): Italian, won in 1998. He co-designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris with Richard Rogers.
• Tadao Ando (wrong): Japanese, won in 1995. Known for exposed concrete and the Church of the Light.
• Wang Shu (wrong): the option D spelling 'Wang Su' is a variant of his name. He won in 2012, the first Chinese architect to do so, not in 2013.

For Mains (GS-I, art and culture, and sustainable urban design), the Pritzker is a useful entry point to discuss contemporary Japanese architecture and how it responds to disasters and dense cities.

Trap: Aspirants confuse the 2012 and 2013 laureates, or pick Wang Shu because he is the most recent Chinese winner they remember.