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Architect Riken Yamamoto has won the U.S. Pritzker Prize, known as the Nobel Prize in architecture, for his unique buildings in Japan, South Korea, China and Zurich Airport, organizers said on Tuesday.
“By carefully blurring the lines between public and private, Yamamoto made a positive contribution to the community beyond his brief,” jury president Alejandro Aravena said in a statement.
Riken Yamamoto (Kyodo News)
Yamamoto, 78, is a prolific architect whose works include the research building at Future University in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan, part of the Codan apartment complex at Togumo Canal Court in Tokyo, and the Yokosuka Museum of Art in Kanagawa Prefecture.
“I can’t believe it… this is a very wonderful moment for me,” Yokohama resident Yamamoto said in a statement about the film on the Pritzker Prize website.
Yamamoto becomes the ninth Japanese to win this award. Past winners from the country include Kenzo Tange, Tadao Ando, Toyo Ito and Arata Isozaki.
In South Korea, Yamamoto was involved in the creation of Pangyo Residences, a low-rise apartment complex in Seongnam, near Seoul, and another in the country’s capital.
The Hyatt Foundation, organizer of the award, praised Banqiao Residences’ design for reducing isolation among single residents, saying: “The public terrace on the second floor encourages interaction, with gathering spaces, playgrounds, gardens and links between one residential area and A bridge in another residential area”.
The foundation also highlights Yamamoto’s Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station, one of his landmark achievements in Japan. The glass walls are designed to allow visitors and passers-by to witness the daily activities and training of firefighters and increase familiarity with the public servants who protect them.
Yamamoto also designed a group of buildings called “The Circle” at Zurich Airport, as well as Jianwai SOHO in China, a complex of residential and commercial facilities.
Nagoya University of Architecture and Design. (Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop/Photo courtesy of the Pritzker Architecture Prize) (Kyodo News)
He once served as a professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology, the Graduate School of Yokohama National University, and the president of Nagoya University of Plastic Arts.
A private awards ceremony will be held in Chicago in May, and Yamamoto will speak in the city on May 16, according to the foundation.
Related reports:
Azabudai Hills, Japan’s tallest skyscraper at 330 meters, opens in Tokyo
Construction of Japan’s tallest skyscraper begins near Tokyo Station
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