The Pritzker Architecture Prize announces Riken Yamamoto, of Yokohama, Japan, as the 2024 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the award that is regarded internationally as architecture’s highest honor.
Yamamoto, architect and social advocate, establishes kinship between public and private realms, inspiring harmonious societies despite a diversity of identities, economies, politics, infrastructures, and housing systems. Deeply embedded in upholding community life, he asserts that the value of privacy has become an urban sensibility, when in fact, members of a community should sustain one another. He defines community as a “sense of sharing one space,” deconstructing traditional notions of freedom and privacy while rejecting longstanding conditions that have reduced housing into a commodity without relation to neighbors. Instead, he bridges cultures, histories and multi-generational citizens, with sensitivity, by adapting international influence and modernist architecture to the needs of the future, allowing life to thrive.
“For me, to recognize space, is to recognize an entire community,” Yamamoto expresses. “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 states, in part, that he 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...”
By reconsidering boundary as a space, he activates the threshold between public and private lives, achieving social value with every project, as each abounds with places for engagement and chance encounters. Small- and large-scale built works alike demonstrate masterly qualities of the spaces themselves, providing focus on the life that each one frames. Transparency is utilized so that those from within may experience the environment that lies beyond, while those passing by may feel a sense of belonging. He offers a consistent continuity of landscape, designing in discourse to the preexisting natural and built environments to contextualize the experience of each building.
![Yokosuka Museum of Art, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Yokosuka%20Museum%20of%20Art%203.jpg)
He has evolved influences from traditional Japanese machiya and Greek oikos housing that existed in relationship to cities, when connectivity and commerce were essential to the vitality of every family. He designed his own home, GAZEBO (Yokohama, Japan 1986) to invoke interaction with neighbors from terraces and rooftops. Ishii House (Kawasaki, Japan 1978), built for two artists, features a pavilion-like room, that extends outdoors and serves as a stage to host performances, while living quarters are embedded beneath.
“Yamamoto develops a new architectural language that doesn’t merely create spaces for families to live, but creates communities for families to live together,” says 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.”
Larger housing projects also embody relational elements, assuring that even residents who live alone don’t dwell in isolation. Pangyo Housing (Seongnam, Republic of Korea 2010), a complex of nine low-rise housing blocks is designed with nonprescriptive transparent ground floor volumes that catalyze interconnectedness between neighbors. A communal deck across the second floor encourages interaction, featuring spaces for gathering, playgrounds, gardens and bridges that connect one housing block to another.
View more selected architectural works from Riken Yamamoto
Watch additional announcement videos about Riken Yamamoto winning the Pritzker Architecture Prize
“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,” explains 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.”
Civic buildings achieving specific functions also affirm public purpose and assurance. The Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station (Hiroshima, Japan, 2000), appears entirely transparent, with its glass louvered façade and interior glass walls. Visitors and passersby may view through to the central atrium to witness the daily activity and training of firefighters, and are encouraged to grow acquainted with the civil servants who protect them in the many designated public areas of the building. Fussa City Hall (Tokyo, Japan 2008) is conceived as two mid-rise towers, rather than one high-rise to compliment the surrounding neighborhood of low-rise buildings. Concave bases invite visitors to recline and rest, while green public rooftop and lower levels are designated for flexible public programming.
![](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Pangyo%20Housing%202.jpg)
Saitama Prefectural University (Koshigaya, Japan 1999), specializing in nursing and health sciences, is composed of nine buildings connected by terraces that transition into walkways leading to transparent volumes that allow views from one classroom to another, but also from one building to the next, encouraging interdisciplinary learning. Such fellowship is fostered even within the youngest generations at Koyasu Elementary School (Yokohama, Japan 2018), which features generous, undivided terraces extending learning spaces, permitting sights into and from each classroom, and encouraging relationships amongst students across grades levels.
He considers the user experience first, designing Yokosuka Museum of Art (Yokosuka, Japan 2006) as both a destination for travelers and a daily reprieve for locals. While the inviting serpentine entrance evokes the surrounding Tokyo Bay and nearby mountains, many of the galleries are underground, providing those who approach with a clear, undisturbed visual experience of the natural geography. Visitors may view through to the landscape and other galleries from round cutouts in all common spaces, uniting these otherwise distinctive environments so that those inside are impressed upon not only by the artwork, but by the activity of others in the spaces alongside them.
His career has spanned five decades and his projects, ranging from private residences to public housing, elementary schools to university buildings, institutions to civic spaces, and city planning, 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 is the 53rd Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the ninth to hail from Japan. He was born in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, and resides in Yokohama, Japan. He will be honored in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America this spring and 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 16th, open to the public in-person and online.
Related Stories
Multifamily Housing | Jan 31, 2015
Production builders are still shying away from rental housing
Toll Brothers, Lennar, and Trumark are among a small group of production builders to engage in construction for rental customers.
Architects | Jan 30, 2015
Exhibit captures 60 of Bjarke Ingels' projects — from hottest to coldest places on Earth
The Hot to Cold exhibit encompasses 60 of BIG’s recent projects captured by Iwan Baan´s masterful photography.
BIM and Information Technology | Jan 29, 2015
Lego X by Gravity elevates the toy to a digital modeling kit
With the Lego X system, users can transfer the forms they’ve created with legos into real-time digital files.
Energy Efficiency | Jan 28, 2015
An urban wind and solar energy system that may actually work
The system was designed to take advantage of a building's air flow and generate energy even if its in the middle of a city.
Multifamily Housing | Jan 27, 2015
Multifamily construction, focused on rentals, expected to slow in the coming years
New-home purchases, which recovered strongly in 2014, indicate that homeownership might finally be making a comeback.
Office Buildings | Jan 27, 2015
London plans to build Foggo Associates' 'can of ham' building
The much delayed high-rise development at London’s 60-70 St. Mary Axe resembles a can of ham, and the project's architects are embracing the playful sobriquet.
Multifamily Housing | Jan 22, 2015
Sales of apartment buildings hit record high in 2014
Investors bet big time on demand for rental properties over homeownership in 2014, when sales of apartment buildings hit a record $110.1 billion, or nearly 15% higher than the previous year.
| Jan 22, 2015
Architecture Billings Index rebounds at end of 2014
The American Institute of Architects reported the December ABI score was 52.2, up from a mark of 50.9 in November. This score reflects an increase in design activity.
| Jan 21, 2015
From technician to rainmaker: Making the leap in your career
Many AEC firms focus on training for the hard skills of the profession, not so much for business prowess, writes BD+C's David Barista.
Modular Building | Jan 21, 2015
Chinese company 3D prints six-story multifamily building
The building components were prefabricated piece by piece using a printer that is 7 meters tall, 10 meters wide, and 40 meters long.