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Riken Yamamoto (山本理顕, Yamamoto Riken), born 1945 Beijing, China[1][2] is a Japanese architect. In 2024, he received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered to be the most prestigious award in architecture, becoming the 9th Japanese architect to receive such honor. [3][4]
Education
Yamamoto completed his bachelor’s degree from Nihon University in 1967 and his master’s degree from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1971, after which he continued his studies at the University of Tokyo under Hiroshi Hara.
Career
He founded the Yamamoto & Field Shop Co.Ltd in 1973. Yamamoto was a professor at Yokohama National University from 2000 to 2011 and at the Graduate school of Engineering of the Nihon University. He currently teaches at his alma mater Nihon University.[1][2] Some of his most representative works are the Rotunda Building (Yokohama, 1981); the Hamlet Building (Tokio, Shibuya-Ku, 1988), or the apartment blocks Ryukoentoshi (Yokohama, 1992).
Recognition
Under the many awards Riken Yamamoto has won, the most recent achieved by him are: The Japan Institute of Architects Award for the Yokosuka Museum of Art (2010) Building Contractors Society Prize for the Namics Techno Core (2010), Building Contractors Society Prize for the Yokosuka Museum of Art (2008) or the 25th Fukushima Architecture Culture Award, highest award for the Fukushima ecoms Pavilion, SUS Fukushima Factory (2007).[5]
In 2024, Yamamoto was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. On the occasion, architect and Jury Chair Alejandro Aravena stated about Yamamoto’s work that “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. He is a reassuring architect who brings dignity to everyday life. Normality becomes extraordinary. Calmness leads to splendor.”[4]
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