Riken Yamamoto Named Winner of Pritzker Architecture Prize 2024
“A reassuring architect who brings dignity to everyday life”.
Riken Yamamoto has been named the recipient of this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize. Yamamoto, whose offices are based in Japan, was honored for his ability to encourage community through the use of architecture, with the jury citing a talent for “blurring the public and private” through his work.
Yamamoto was born in Beijing in 1945, but relocated to Yokohama, Japan shortly after the end of World War II. He lived with his mother inside a home that was based on a traditional Japanese machiya – his mother ran her pharmacy business towards the front of the property, while their living area was in the back.
“He is a reassuring architect who brings dignity to everyday life”
This sharing of space had a profound effect on the architect, particulary when it came to observing the balance between public and private – “the threshold on one side was for family, and on the other side for community. I sat in between,” he says.
In 1968, Yamamoto graduated from Nihon University, and recieved his Master of Arts in Architecture from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1971. He then founded his eponymous practice, ‘Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop’ in 1973. Devleoping his craft throughout the early years involved international observation. He would journey by car to meet communities across all continenets, with road trips from Los Angeles to Peru, and expedtiions across Iraq, India and Nepal. “The villages were different in their appearance, but their worlds [were] very similar,” he says.
Key projects by the architect range from small residences, such as the Yamakawa Villa designed in 1977 in Nagano, Japan through to the Tianjin Library, designed in 2012. “For me, to recognize space, is to recognize an entire community,” Yamamoto says. “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”.
Expanding on their decision to award Yamamoto the coveted prize, jury chair Alejandro Aravena said: “He contributes positively beyond the brief to enable community. He is a reassuring architect who brings dignity to everyday life. Normality becomes extraordinary. Calmness leads to splendor.”
Yamaoto will recieve his award in Chicago this spring, with the 2024 Laureate Lecture taking place at the Illinois Institute of Technology on May 16th. It will be open to the public in-person and online.
