Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto has been selected as the 2024 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize
Born in Beijing, People’s Republic of China and having relocating to Yokohama, Japan shortly after the end of World War II, Yamamoto graduated from Nihon University in 1968 and received a Master of Arts in Architecture from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1971. He founded his practice, Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop in 1973. Thoughout his career, Yamamoto was engaged with interrogating the relationship between public and private, employing transparency and space as socio-political tools in his structures and homes. His portfolio includes everything from houses and apartments to schools and universities, libraries, museums and fire stations.
In a five-decade career, his projects are located throughout Japan, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Switzerland. Explore some of his works below.
The jury, chaired by Alejandro Aravena (Founder and Executive Director of ELEMENTAL; and 2016 Pritzker Laureate), said in a statement: ‘In his long, coherent, rigorous career, Riken Yamamoto has managed to produce architecture both as background and foreground to everyday life, blurring boundaries between its public and private dimensions, and multiplying opportunities for people to meet spontaneously, through precise, rational design strategies.
‘By the strong, consistent quality of his buildings, he aims to dignify, enhance and enrich the life of individuals – from children to elders – and their social connections. And he does this through a self-explanatory yet modest and pertinent architecture, with structural honesty and precise scaling, with careful attention to the landscape of the surroundings.’
Yamamoto is the 53nd Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which awards USD$100,000 and a bronze medallion to each laureate. Founded in 1979 by the Pritzker family of Chicago, the annual award is regarded as architecture’s highest honour. The 2024 Pritzker Prize ceremony will be held this May at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
