The Pritzker Architecture Prize has announced Riken Yamamoto, from Yokohama, Japan, as the 2024 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. This award is regarded internationally as architecture’s highest honour.
Yamamoto, architect, and social advocate, is the 53rd Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the ninth from Japan. He was born in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, and lives in Yokohama, Japan.
Yamamoto defines community as a “sense of sharing one space,” and is known for “deconstructing traditional notions of freedom and privacy.” He also brings together cultures, histories and multi-generational citizens, with sensitivity, by adapting international influence as well as modernist architecture to the needs of the future.
“For me, to recognize space, is to recognize an entire community,” said Yamamoto. “The current architectural approach emphasizes privacy, negating the necessity of societal relationships. However, we can still honor the freedom of each individual while living together in architectural space as a republic, fostering harmony across cultures and phases of life.”
The 2024 Jury Citation said that Yamamoto was selected “for creating awareness in the community in what is the responsibility of the social demand, for questioning the discipline of architecture to calibrate each individual architectural response, and above all for reminding us that in architecture, as in democracy, spaces must be created by the resolve of the people…”
Yamamoto is known for having evolved influences from traditional Japanese machiya and Greek oikos housing. He designed his own home, GAZEBO (Yokohama, Japan 1986) as well as Ishii House (Kawasaki, Japan 1978), which was built for two artists. It features a pavilion-like room, that extends outdoors and serves as a stage.
He offers a consistent continuity of landscape, designing in discourse to both the preexisting natural and built environments in order to contextualize the unique experience of each individual building.
“Yamamoto develops a new architectural language that doesn’t merely create spaces for families to live, but creates communities for families to live together,” said Tom Pritzker, chair of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the award. “His works are always connected to society, cultivating a generosity in spirit and honoring the human moment.”
“One of the things we need most in the future of cities is to create conditions through architecture that multiply the opportunities for people to come together and interact. By carefully blurring the boundary between public and private, Yamamoto contributes positively beyond the brief to enable community,” said Alejandro Aravena, jury chair and 2016 Pritzker Prize Laureate. “He is a reassuring architect who brings dignity to everyday life. Normality becomes extraordinary. Calmness leads to splendor.”
His career has spanned a total of five decades and his projects, range from private residences to public housing, elementary schools to university buildings, institutions to civic spaces, and city planning, which are located throughout Japan, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Switzerland.
Significant built works also include Nagoya Zokei University (Nagoya, Japan, 2022), THE CIRCLE at Zürich Airport (Zürich, Switzerland, 2020), Tianjin Library (Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, 2012), Jian Wai SOHO (Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 2004), Ecoms House (Tosu, Japan, 2004), Shinonome Canal Court CODAN (Tokyo, Japan, 2003), Future University Hakodate (Hakodate, Japan, 2000), Iwadeyama Junior High School (Ōsaki, Japan, 1996) and Hotakubo Housing (Kumamoto, Japan, 1991).
Yamamoto will be honored in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America in the spring. The 2024 Laureate Lecture will be held at S. R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology, in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center, on May 16, 2024.