Riken Yamamoto

(born 1945) considered to be the most prestigious award in architecture, becoming the 9th Japanese architect to receive such honor.

Early life and education Yamamoto was born to Japanese parents in Beijing, China. His parents had moved from Japan to China for his father's work as an engineer as part of the Japanese occupation of China. In 1947, the family returned to a Japan devastated by World War II. In 1949, after his father's death when he was four, Yamamoto moved to his mother's hometown of Yokohama.

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).

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." 2018: The Circle at Zürich Airport