Riken Yamamoto. New 2024 PRITZKER ARCHITECTURE PRIZE
05/03/2024.
PRITZKER ARCHITECTURE PRIZE. [CHICAGO] USA
metalocus, ANTONIO CORREDERA
metalocus, ANTONIO CORREDERA
We now know the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2024.
Riken Yamamoto, of Yokohama, Japan, is the new winner!!
The official announcement of the Pritzker Architecture Prize (the date was announced two weeks ago) has just been announced from the Hyatt Foundation headquarters (Chicago, USA).
As always, the news was released today at 09:00 am in Chicago and 10:00 am (EDT) in New York, 3:00 pm in London, 4:00 pm (CET) in Madrid, 6:00 pm in Moscow, 11:00 pm in Beijing, and near Midnight (March 8th) Tokyo.
The award annually honors a living architect whose built work expresses the highest combination of talent, vision, and commitment to "architecture". This highly respected international architecture prize is commonly known as the "The Nobel Prize of Architecture", the most mediatic architecture prize.
Yokosuka Museum of Art, photograph courtesy of Tomio Ohashi.
Ecoms House, photograph courtesy of Shinkenchiku Sha.
Yokosuka Museum of Art, photograph courtesy of Tomio Ohashi.
Nagoya Zokei University, photograph courtesy of Shinkenchiku Sha
GAZEBO, photograph courtesy of Tomio Ohashi.
Yamakawa Villa, photograph courtesy of Tomio Ohashi.
Jian Wai SOHO, photograph courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
GAZEBO, photograph courtesy of Ryuuji Miyamoto
GAZEBO, photograph courtesy of Shigeru Ohno.
Yokosuka Museum of Art, photograph courtesy of Tomio Ohashi.
“For me, to recognize space is to recognize an entire community. 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.”
Riken Yamamoto
Riken Yamamoto is the 53rd winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the ninth from Japan. He was born in Beijing, People's Republic of China and resides in Yokohama, Japan.
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...”
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...”
"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."
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."
According to the 2024 Jury Citation.
Ecoms House, photograph courtesy of Shinkenchiku Sha.
The last awardees were.-
2023 DAVID CHIPPERFIELD
2022 FRANCIS KÉRÉ
2021 ANNE LACATON AND JEAN-PHILIPPE VASSAL
2020 YVONNE FARRELL AND SHELLEY MCNAMARA
2019 ARATA ISOZAKI
2018 BALKRISHNA DOSHI
2017 RAFAEL ARANDA, CARME PIGEM AND RAMÓN VILALTA
2016 ALEJANDRO ARAVENA
2015 FREI OTTO
2014 SHIGERU BAN
2013 TOYO ITO
2012 WANG SHU
2011 SOUTO DE MOURA
.../...
2022 FRANCIS KÉRÉ
2021 ANNE LACATON AND JEAN-PHILIPPE VASSAL
2020 YVONNE FARRELL AND SHELLEY MCNAMARA
2019 ARATA ISOZAKI
2018 BALKRISHNA DOSHI
2017 RAFAEL ARANDA, CARME PIGEM AND RAMÓN VILALTA
2016 ALEJANDRO ARAVENA
2015 FREI OTTO
2014 SHIGERU BAN
2013 TOYO ITO
2012 WANG SHU
2011 SOUTO DE MOURA
.../...
The award consists of USD 100,000 (equivalent to €93,631.50) and a bronze medallion with the inscription of "firmness, commodity, and delight", about the classic Vitruve motto "firmitas, utilitas, venustas".
The prize takes its name from the Pritzker family, whose international business interests are headquartered in Chicago. Their name is synonymous with Hyatt Hotels, located throughout the world. The Pritzkers have long been known for their support of educational, scientific, medical, and cultural activities. Jay A. Pritzker, (1922-1999), founded the prize with his wife, Cindy. His eldest son, Thomas J. Pritzker, the current president of The Hyatt Foundation, explains, "As native Chicagoans, it’s not surprising that our family was keenly aware of architecture, living in the birthplace of the skyscraper, a city filled with buildings designed by architectural legends such as Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and many others."
2024 JURY
This year there are no changes in the jury (except for the absence of Benedetta Tagliabue). The independent jury of experts ranges each year from five to nine members. Jury members, who have the mission of selecting the laureate each year, serve for multiple years to ensure a balance between past and new members. The jury members are selected for their high recognition in their fields of architecture, business, education, publishing, and culture. No members of the Pritzker family or outside observers are present during jury deliberations, which usually take place during the first months of the calendar year.
The prize takes its name from the Pritzker family, whose international business interests are headquartered in Chicago. Their name is synonymous with Hyatt Hotels, located throughout the world. The Pritzkers have long been known for their support of educational, scientific, medical, and cultural activities. Jay A. Pritzker, (1922-1999), founded the prize with his wife, Cindy. His eldest son, Thomas J. Pritzker, the current president of The Hyatt Foundation, explains, "As native Chicagoans, it’s not surprising that our family was keenly aware of architecture, living in the birthplace of the skyscraper, a city filled with buildings designed by architectural legends such as Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and many others."
2024 JURY
This year there are no changes in the jury (except for the absence of Benedetta Tagliabue). The independent jury of experts ranges each year from five to nine members. Jury members, who have the mission of selecting the laureate each year, serve for multiple years to ensure a balance between past and new members. The jury members are selected for their high recognition in their fields of architecture, business, education, publishing, and culture. No members of the Pritzker family or outside observers are present during jury deliberations, which usually take place during the first months of the calendar year.
Alejandro Aravena, 2020-present (Chair 2021-present) - 2016 Pritzker Laureate
Barry Bergdoll, 2019-present
Deborah Berke, 2019-present
Stephen Breyer, 2012-present
André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, 2017-present
Kazuyo Sejima, 2017-present - 2010 Pritzker Laureate
Wang Shu, 2017-present - 2012 Pritzker Laureate
Manuela Lucá-Dazio, 2020-present (Executive Director)
Barry Bergdoll, 2019-present
Deborah Berke, 2019-present
Stephen Breyer, 2012-present
André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, 2017-present
Kazuyo Sejima, 2017-present - 2010 Pritzker Laureate
Wang Shu, 2017-present - 2012 Pritzker Laureate
Manuela Lucá-Dazio, 2020-present (Executive Director)
More information
Riken Yamamoto
Riken Yamamoto (b. 1945) was born in Beijing, People’s Republic of China and relocated to Yokohama, Japan shortly after the end of World War II. Negotiating a balance between public and private dimensions from childhood, he lived in a home that was modeled after a traditional Japanese machiya, with his mother’s pharmacy in the front and their living area in the rear.
Yamamoto knew little about his father, who had passed away when the architect was only five years old. In some ways, he sought to emulate his father’s career as an engineer, but instead forged his own path into architecture. At age 17, he visited Kôfuku-ji Temple, in Nara, Japan, originally built in 730 and finally reconstructed in 1426, and was captivated by the Five-storied Pagoda symbolizing the five Buddhist elements of earth, water, fire, air and space.
He graduated from Nihon University, Department of Architecture, College of Science and Technology in 1968 and received a Master of Arts in Architecture from Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Architecture in 1971. He founded his practice, Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop in 1973.
Transparency, in form, material and philosophy remained an essential element in his works. He established an urban planning approach that demonstrated evolution as a vital property in the development of Ryokuen-toshi, Inter-Junction City (Yokohama, Japan 1994). Regardless of a building’s identity or function, a regulation constitutes that all must allow passage through its site, cohering adjacent plots and unifying neighboring landowners. He continued to prompt societies in large buildings by adapting his architectural language to projects such as Saitama Prefectural University (Koshigaya, Japan 1999), and Tianjin Library (Tianjin, Republic of China 2012), attesting to his mastery of scale.
His work grew more prolific, ranging from private residences to public housing, elementary schools to university buildings, and institutions to civic spaces, when natural disaster devastated Japan in 2011. In the aftermath of Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami, he established Local Area Republic Labo, an institute dedicated to community activities through architectural design; and instituted the Local Republic Award in 2018 to honor young architects who act with courage and ideals towards the future.
Yamamoto is a newly appointed visiting professor at Kanagawa University (Yokohama, Japan). He was a visiting professor at Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo, Japan 2022-2024) and has previously taught at Nihon University, Graduate School of Engineering (Tokyo, Japan 2011-2013); Yokohama National University, Graduate School of Architecture (Yokohama, Japan 2007-2011); Kogakuin University, Department of Architecture (Tokyo, Japan 2002-2007); and served as the President of Nagoya Zokei University of Art and Design (Nagoya, Japan 2018-2022).
During the earliest years of his career, the architect spontaneously journeyed across countries and continents by car with his mentor, Hiroshi Hara, spending months at a time in pursuit of understanding communities, cultures and civilizations. In 1972, he drove along the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, visiting France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Greece and Türkiye. Two years later, he traveled from Los Angeles to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia before reaching Peru. He would also embark on a similar expedition to Iraq, India and Nepal, and concluded that the idea of a “threshold” between public and private spaces was universal.
Yamamoto reconsidered boundaries between public and private realms as societal opportunities, committing to the belief that all spaces may enrich and serve the consideration of an entire community, and not just those who occupy them. With this in mind, he began designing single-family residences that united natural and built environments, welcoming to both guests and passersby. His first project, Yamakawa Villa (Nagano, Japan 1977), is exposed on all sides and situated in the woods, designed to feel entirely like an open-air terrace. The experience significantly influenced his future works as he extended into social housing with Hotakubo Housing (Kumamoto, Japan 1991), bridging cultures and generations through relational living.
He was appointed Academician by the International Academy of Architecture (2013) and has received numerous distinctions throughout his career including the Japan Institute of Architects Award for the Yokosuka Museum of Art (2010), Public Buildings Prize (2004 and 2006), Good Design Gold Award (2004 and 2005), Prize of the Architectural Institute of Japan (1988 and 2002), Japan Arts Academy Award (2001), and Mainichi Art Awards (1998).
Yamamoto continues to practice and reside in Yokohama, in community with his neighbors. His built works can be found throughout Japan, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Switzerland.
Yamamoto knew little about his father, who had passed away when the architect was only five years old. In some ways, he sought to emulate his father’s career as an engineer, but instead forged his own path into architecture. At age 17, he visited Kôfuku-ji Temple, in Nara, Japan, originally built in 730 and finally reconstructed in 1426, and was captivated by the Five-storied Pagoda symbolizing the five Buddhist elements of earth, water, fire, air and space.
He graduated from Nihon University, Department of Architecture, College of Science and Technology in 1968 and received a Master of Arts in Architecture from Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Architecture in 1971. He founded his practice, Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop in 1973.
Transparency, in form, material and philosophy remained an essential element in his works. He established an urban planning approach that demonstrated evolution as a vital property in the development of Ryokuen-toshi, Inter-Junction City (Yokohama, Japan 1994). Regardless of a building’s identity or function, a regulation constitutes that all must allow passage through its site, cohering adjacent plots and unifying neighboring landowners. He continued to prompt societies in large buildings by adapting his architectural language to projects such as Saitama Prefectural University (Koshigaya, Japan 1999), and Tianjin Library (Tianjin, Republic of China 2012), attesting to his mastery of scale.
His work grew more prolific, ranging from private residences to public housing, elementary schools to university buildings, and institutions to civic spaces, when natural disaster devastated Japan in 2011. In the aftermath of Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami, he established Local Area Republic Labo, an institute dedicated to community activities through architectural design; and instituted the Local Republic Award in 2018 to honor young architects who act with courage and ideals towards the future.
Yamamoto is a newly appointed visiting professor at Kanagawa University (Yokohama, Japan). He was a visiting professor at Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo, Japan 2022-2024) and has previously taught at Nihon University, Graduate School of Engineering (Tokyo, Japan 2011-2013); Yokohama National University, Graduate School of Architecture (Yokohama, Japan 2007-2011); Kogakuin University, Department of Architecture (Tokyo, Japan 2002-2007); and served as the President of Nagoya Zokei University of Art and Design (Nagoya, Japan 2018-2022).
During the earliest years of his career, the architect spontaneously journeyed across countries and continents by car with his mentor, Hiroshi Hara, spending months at a time in pursuit of understanding communities, cultures and civilizations. In 1972, he drove along the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, visiting France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Greece and Türkiye. Two years later, he traveled from Los Angeles to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia before reaching Peru. He would also embark on a similar expedition to Iraq, India and Nepal, and concluded that the idea of a “threshold” between public and private spaces was universal.
Yamamoto reconsidered boundaries between public and private realms as societal opportunities, committing to the belief that all spaces may enrich and serve the consideration of an entire community, and not just those who occupy them. With this in mind, he began designing single-family residences that united natural and built environments, welcoming to both guests and passersby. His first project, Yamakawa Villa (Nagano, Japan 1977), is exposed on all sides and situated in the woods, designed to feel entirely like an open-air terrace. The experience significantly influenced his future works as he extended into social housing with Hotakubo Housing (Kumamoto, Japan 1991), bridging cultures and generations through relational living.
He was appointed Academician by the International Academy of Architecture (2013) and has received numerous distinctions throughout his career including the Japan Institute of Architects Award for the Yokosuka Museum of Art (2010), Public Buildings Prize (2004 and 2006), Good Design Gold Award (2004 and 2005), Prize of the Architectural Institute of Japan (1988 and 2002), Japan Arts Academy Award (2001), and Mainichi Art Awards (1998).
Yamamoto continues to practice and reside in Yokohama, in community with his neighbors. His built works can be found throughout Japan, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Switzerland.
