A graduate of Japan Women's University, she worked with conceptual architect Toyo Ito before founding Kazuyo Sejima and Associates in 1987. In 1995 she established the Tokyo-based SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates) with Ryue Nishizawa and is renowned for her modernist and playfully innovative structures, such as The New Museum in Manhattan, Dior Omotesando in Toyko and the Police Office in Chofu Station, Tokyo. Sejima was the first woman to be appointed director of the architecture section of the Venice Biennale in 2010.