Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto (b. 1945) was born in Beijing, People’s Republic of China and relocated to Yokohama, Japan shortly after the end of World War II. Negotiating a balance between public and private dimensions from childhood, he lived in a home that was modeled after a traditional Japanese machiya, with his mother’s pharmacy in the front and their living area in the rear. “The threshold on one side was for family, and on the other side for community. I sat in between.”

Yamamoto knew little about his father, who had passed away when the architect was only five years old. In some ways, he sought to emulate his father’s career as an engineer, but instead forged his own path into architecture. At age 17, he visited Kôfuku-ji Temple, in Nara, Japan, originally built in 730 and finally reconstructed in 1426, and was captivated by the Five-storied Pagoda symbolizing the five Buddhist elements of earth, water, fire, air and space. “It was very dark, but I could see the wooden tower illuminated by the light of the moon and what I found at that moment was my first experience with architecture.”

He graduated from Nihon University, Department of Architecture, College of Science and Technology in 1968 and received a Master of Arts in Architecture from Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Architecture in 1971. He founded his practice, Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop in 1973.

Riken Yamamoto Family Photo
Photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto

During the earliest years of his career, the architect spontaneously journeyed across countries and continents by car with his mentor, Hiroshi Hara, spending months at a time in pursuit of understanding communities, cultures and civilizations. In 1972, he drove along the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, visiting France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Greece and Türkiye. Two years later, he traveled from Los Angeles to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia before reaching Peru. He would also embark on a similar expedition to Iraq, India and Nepal, and concluded that the idea of a “threshold” between public and private spaces was universal. “I recognize the past system of architecture is so that we can find our culture...The villages were different in their appearance, but their worlds [were] very similar.”

Yamamoto reconsidered boundaries between public and private realms as societal opportunities, committing to the belief that all spaces may enrich and serve the consideration of an entire community, and not just those who occupy them. With this in mind, he began designing single-family residences that united natural and built environments, welcoming to both guests and passersby. His first project, Yamakawa Villa (Nagano, Japan 1977), is exposed on all sides and situated in the woods, designed to feel entirely like an open-air terrace. The experience significantly influenced his future works as he extended into social housing with Hotakubo Housing (Kumamoto, Japan 1991), bridging cultures and generations through relational living.

Riken Yamamoto with Colleagues
Photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto
GAZEBO
GAZEBO, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi

Transparency, in form, material and philosophy remained an essential element in his works. He established an urban planning approach that demonstrated evolution as a vital property in the development of Ryokuen-toshi, Inter-Junction City (Yokohama, Japan 1994). Regardless of a building’s identity or function, a regulation constitutes that all must allow passage through its site, cohering adjacent plots and unifying neighboring landowners. He continued to prompt societies in large buildings by adapting his architectural language to projects such as Saitama Prefectural University (Koshigaya, Japan 1999), and Tianjin Library (Tianjin, Republic of China 2012), attesting to his mastery of scale.

His work grew more prolific, ranging from private residences to public housing, elementary schools to university buildings, and institutions to civic spaces, when natural disaster devastated Japan in 2011. In the aftermath of Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami, he established Local Area Republic Labo, an institute dedicated to community activities through architectural design; and instituted the Local Republic Award in 2018 to honor young architects who act with courage and ideals towards the future.

Yamamoto is a newly appointed visiting professor at Kanagawa University (Yokohama, Japan). He was a visiting professor at Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo, Japan 2022-2024) and has previously taught at Nihon University, Graduate School of Engineering (Tokyo, Japan 2011-2013); Yokohama National University, Graduate School of Architecture (Yokohama, Japan 2007-2011); Kogakuin University, Department of Architecture (Tokyo, Japan 2002-2007); and served as the President of Nagoya Zokei University of Art and Design (Nagoya, Japan 2018-2022).

Riken Yamamoto Office
Photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop

He was appointed Academician by the International Academy of Architecture (2013) and has received numerous distinctions throughout his career including the Japan Institute of Architects Award for the Yokosuka Museum of Art (2010), Public Buildings Prize (2004 and 2006), Good Design Gold Award (2004 and 2005), Prize of the Architectural Institute of Japan (1988 and 2002), Japan Arts Academy Award (2001), and Mainichi Art Awards (1998).

Yamamoto continues to practice and reside in Yokohama, in community with his neighbors. His built works can be found throughout Japan, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Switzerland.

Riken Yamamoto Receives the 2024 Pritzker Architecture Prize

Chicago, IL (March 5, 2024) – The Pritzker Architecture Prize announces Riken Yamamoto, of Yokohama, Japan, as the 2024 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the award that is regarded internationally as architecture’s highest honor.

Yamamoto, architect and social advocate, establishes kinship between public and private realms, inspiring harmonious societies despite a diversity of identities, economies, politics, infrastructures, and housing systems. Deeply embedded in upholding community life, he asserts that the value of privacy has become an urban sensibility, when in fact, members of a community should sustain one another. He defines community as a “sense of sharing one space,” deconstructing traditional notions of freedom and privacy while rejecting longstanding conditions that have reduced housing into a commodity without relation to neighbors. Instead, he bridges cultures, histories and multi-generational citizens, with sensitivity, by adapting international influence and modernist architecture to the needs of the future, allowing life to thrive.

“For me, to recognize space, is to recognize an entire community,” Yamamoto expresses. “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 in architectural space as a republic, fostering harmony across cultures and phases of life.”

Pangyo Housing
Pangyo Housing, photo courtesy of Nam Goongsun

The 2024 Jury Citation states, in part, that he was selected “for creating awareness in the community in what is the responsibility of the social demand, for questioning the discipline of architecture to calibrate each individual architectural response, and above all for reminding us that in architecture, as in democracy, spaces must be created by the resolve of the people...”

By reconsidering boundary as a space, he activates the threshold between public and private lives, achieving social value with every project, as each abounds with places for engagement and chance encounters. Small- and large-scale built works alike demonstrate masterly qualities of the spaces themselves, providing focus on the life that each one frames. Transparency is utilized so that those from within may experience the environment that lies beyond, while those passing by may feel a sense of belonging. He offers a consistent continuity of landscape, designing in discourse to the preexisting natural and built environments to contextualize the experience of each building.

He has evolved influences from traditional Japanese machiya and Greek oikos housing that existed in relationship to cities, when connectivity and commerce were essential to the vitality of every family. He designed his own home, GAZEBO (Yokohama, Japan 1986) to invoke interaction with neighbors from terraces and rooftops. Ishii House (Kawasaki, Japan 1978), built for two artists, features a pavilion-like room, that extends outdoors and serves as a stage to host performances, while living quarters are embedded beneath.

Shinonome Canal Court CODAN
Shinonome Canal Court CODAN, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi

“Yamamoto develops a new architectural language that doesn’t merely create spaces for families to live, but creates communities for families to live together,” says Tom Pritzker, Chair of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the award. “His works are always connected to society, cultivating a generosity in spirit and honoring the human moment.”

Larger housing projects also embody relational elements, assuring that even residents who live alone don’t dwell in isolation. Pangyo Housing (Seongnam, Republic of Korea 2010), a complex of nine low-rise housing blocks is designed with nonprescriptive transparent ground floor volumes that catalyze interconnectedness between neighbors. A communal deck across the second floor encourages interaction, featuring spaces for gathering, playgrounds, gardens and bridges that connect one housing block to another.

Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station
Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi

“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,” explains Alejandro Aravena, Jury Chair and 2016 Pritzker Prize Laureate. “He is a reassuring architect who brings dignity to everyday life. Normality becomes extraordinary. Calmness leads to splendor.”

Civic buildings achieving specific functions also affirm public purpose and assurance. The Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station (Hiroshima, Japan, 2000), appears entirely transparent, with its glass louvered façade and interior glass walls. Visitors and passersby may view through to the central atrium to witness the daily activity and training of firefighters, and are encouraged to grow acquainted with the civil servants who protect them in the many designated public areas of the building. Fussa City Hall (Tokyo, Japan 2008) is conceived as two mid-rise towers, rather than one high-rise to compliment the surrounding neighborhood of low-rise buildings. Concave bases invite visitors to recline and rest, while green public rooftop and lower levels are designated for flexible public programming.

Saitama Prefectural University (Koshigaya, Japan 1999), specializing in nursing and health sciences, is composed of nine buildings connected by terraces that transition into walkways leading to transparent volumes that allow views from one classroom to another, but also from one building to the next, encouraging interdisciplinary learning. Such fellowship is fostered even within the youngest generations at Koyasu Elementary School (Yokohama, Japan 2018), which features generous, undivided terraces extending learning spaces, permitting sights into and from each classroom, and encouraging relationships amongst students across grades levels.

Yokosuka Museum of Art
Yokosuka Museum of Art, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi

He considers the user experience first, designing Yokosuka Museum of Art (Yokosuka, Japan 2006) as both a destination for travelers and a daily reprieve for locals. While the inviting serpentine entrance evokes the surrounding Tokyo Bay and nearby mountains, many of the galleries are underground, providing those who approach with a clear, undisturbed visual experience of the natural geography. Visitors may view through to the landscape and other galleries from round cutouts in all common spaces, uniting these otherwise distinctive environments so that those inside are impressed upon not only by the artwork, but by the activity of others in the spaces alongside them.

His career has spanned five decades and his projects, ranging from private residences to public housing, elementary schools to university buildings, institutions to civic spaces, and city planning, are located throughout Japan, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Switzerland. Significant built works also include Nagoya Zokei University (Nagoya, Japan, 2022), THE CIRCLE at Zürich Airport (Zürich, Switzerland, 2020), Tianjin Library (Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, 2012), Jian Wai SOHO (Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 2004), Ecoms House (Tosu, Japan, 2004), Shinonome Canal Court CODAN (Tokyo, Japan, 2003), Future University Hakodate (Hakodate, Japan, 2000), Iwadeyama Junior High School (Ōsaki, Japan, 1996) and Hotakubo Housing (Kumamoto, Japan, 1991).

Yamamoto is the 53rd Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the ninth to hail from Japan. He was born in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, and resides in Yokohama, Japan. He will be honored in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America this spring and the 2024 Laureate Lecture will be held at S. R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology, in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center, on May 16th, open to the public in-person and online.

The Pritzker Prize is conferred in acknowledgment of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which have persistently produced significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture. 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.

Yamakawa Villa
Yamakawa Villa, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi

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.

His architecture clearly expresses his beliefs through the modular structure and the simplicity of its form. Yet, it does not dictate activities, rather it enables people to shape their own lives within his buildings with elegance, normality, poetry and joy.

Riken Yamamoto deliberately engages with the widest range of building types as well as scales in the projects he chooses. Whether he designs private houses or public infrastructure, schools or fire stations, city halls or museums, the common and convivial dimension is always present. His constant, careful and substantial attention to community has generated public interworking space systems that incentivize people to convene in different ways. The entire building space of the Saitama Prefectural University (1999), for instance, is conceived as a community.

Saitama Prefectural University
Saitama Prefectural University, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi

Yamamoto suggests rather than imposes this shared dimension through understated, yet precise architectural interventions. By including spaces for common activities within, in addition to and even regardless of the main function of his buildings, he allows these to integrate into the quotidian life of the community, instead of being only experienced in exceptional circumstances. The two departments for the students and researchers to work together in the Future University, Hakodate (2000), or the transparent louvred glass façade to expose the inner workings of the department in the Hiroshima Fire Station (2000) both exemplify his belief in the concept of transparency as a reflection of the functionality and accessibility of the space for users and viewers alike.

Tianjin Library
Tianjin Library, photo courtesy of Nacasa & Partners

As a young architect born in China and trained in Japan, he felt the urgency to complete his own education with a real understanding of the ‘other than the self.’ He extensively travelled not (primarily) to visit renowned monuments, but rather to experience at first hand the culture and everyday life of communities on other continents. From North to South America, across the Mediterranean to the Middle East and Asia, Yamamoto has investigated the roots and history of community life that he might bring his own contribution to the modernization of the contemporary city through architecture. For him a building has a public function even when it is private.

Pangyo Housing
Pangyo Housing, photo courtesy of Nam Goongsun

Riken Yamamoto is not an architecture historian, yet he learns from the past as well as from different cultures. As an architect, he does not copy from the past, rather he adapts, re-uses and evolves, showing that fundamentals persist in their relevance. Yamamoto has expanded the toolbox of the profession towards both the past and the future to be able to give each time, in very different modes and at very different scales, the most pertinent response to the challenges of both the built environment and of collective living.

For creating awareness in the community in what is the responsibility of the social demand, for questioning the discipline of architecture to calibrate each individual architectural response, and above all for reminding us that in architecture, as in democracy, spaces must be created by the resolve of the people, Riken Yamamoto is named the 2024 Pritzker Prize Laureate.

The following are images of the architecture of Riken Yamamoto.

These images may be downloaded and distributed only in relation to the announcement of Riken Yamamoto being named the 2024 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate.

The photographer/photo libraries/artists must be credited if noted.

All images are copyright of the respective photographers and artists cited, and courtesy of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Click on each image to download a high-resolution file.

Captions for these images are in the 2024 Image Book, available here.

Download the 2024 Media Kit here.

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Riken Yamamoto

Riken Yamamoto, photo courtesy of Tom Welsh
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Yamakawa Villa

Yamakawa Villa, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Yamakawa Villa

Yamakawa Villa, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Yamakawa Villa

Yamakawa Villa, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Ishii House

Ishii House, photo courtesy of Shinkenchiku Sha
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Ishii House

Ishii House, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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GAZEBO

GAZEBO, photo courtesy of Ryuuji Miyamoto
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GAZEBO

GAZEBO, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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GAZEBO

GAZEBO, photo courtesy of Shigeru Ohno
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Hotakubo Housing

Hotakubo Housing, photo courtesy of Shinkenchiku Sha
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Hotakubo Housing

Hotakubo Housing, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Hotakubo Housing

Hotakubo Housing, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Hotakubo Housing

Hotakubo Housing, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Iwadeyama Junior High School

Iwadeyama Junior High School, photo courtesy of Mitsumasa Fujitsuka
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Iwadeyama Junior High School

Iwadeyama Junior High School, photo courtesy of Mitsumasa Fujitsuka
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Iwadeyama Junior High School

Iwadeyama Junior High School, photo courtesy of Shinkenchiku Sha
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Saitama Prefectural University

Saitama Prefectural University, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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Saitama Prefectural University

Saitama Prefectural University, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Saitama Prefectural University

Saitama Prefectural University, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Saitama Prefectural University

Saitama Prefectural University, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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Saitama Prefectural University

Saitama Prefectural University, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station

Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station

Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station

Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station

Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station

Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Future University of Hakodate

Future University of Hakodate, photo courtesy of Isao Aihara
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Future University of Hakodate

Future University of Hakodate, photo courtesy of Mitsumasa Fujitsuka
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Future University of Hakodate

Future University of Hakodate, photo courtesy of Mitsumasa Fujitsuka
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Shinonome Canal Court CODAN

Shinonome Canal Court CODAN, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Shinonome Canal Court CODAN

Shinonome Canal Court CODAN, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop

 

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Ecoms House

Ecoms House, photo courtesy of Shinkenchiku Sha
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Ecoms House

Ecoms House, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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Jian Wai SOHO

Jian Wai SOHO, photo courtesy of Mitsumasa Fujitsuka
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Jian Wai SOHO

Jian Wai SOHO, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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Jian Wai SOHO

Jian Wai SOHO, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Jian Wai SOHO

Jian Wai SOHO, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Yokosuka Museum of Art

Yokosuka Museum of Art, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Yokosuka Museum of Art

Yokosuka Museum of Art, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Yokosuka Museum of Art

Yokosuka Museum of Art, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Yokosuka Museum of Art

Yokosuka Museum of Art, photo courtesy of Tomio Ohashi
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Fussa City Hall

Fussa City Hall, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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Fussa City Hall

Fussa City Hall, photo courtesy of Sergio Pirrone
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Fussa City Hall

Fussa City Hall, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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Pangyo Housing

Pangyo Housing, photo courtesy of Nam Goongsun
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Pangyo Housing

Pangyo Housing, photo courtesy of Kouichi Satake
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Pangyo Housing

Pangyo Housing, photo courtesy of Nam Goongsun
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Pangyo Housing

Pangyo Housing, photo courtesy of GA Photographers
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Tianjin Library

Tianjin Library, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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Tianjin Library

Tianjin Library, photo courtesy of Nacasa & Partners
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Tianjin Library

Tianjin Library, photo courtesy of Nacasa & Partners
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Tianjin Library

Tianjin Library, photo courtesy of Nacasa & Partners
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Koyasu Elementary School

Koyasu Elementary School, photo courtesy of Mitsumasa Fujitsuka
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Koyasu Elementary School

Koyasu Elementary School, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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Koyasu Elementary School

Koyasu Elementary School, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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Koyasu Elementary School

Koyasu Elementary School, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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THE CIRCLE

THE CIRCLE at Zürich Airport, photo courtesy of Flughafen Zürich AG
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THE CIRCLE

THE CIRCLE at Zürich Airport, photo courtesy of Flughafen Zürich AG
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THE CIRCLE

THE CIRCLE at Zürich Airport, photo courtesy of Flughafen Zürich AG
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Nagoya Zokei University

Nagoya Zokei University, photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
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Nagoya Zokei University

Nagoya Zokei University, photo courtesy of Shigeru Ohno
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Nagoya Zokei University

Nagoya Zokei University, photo courtesy of Shinkenchiku Sha
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Nagoya Zokei University

Nagoya Zokei University, photo courtesy of Shinkenchiku Sha
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Nagoya Zokei University

Nagoya Zokei University, photo courtesy of Shinkenchiku Sha

 

 

 

 

 

The Art Institute of Chicago
 

Founded in the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire, the Art Institute of Chicago opened its current location in 1893, situated in what has become the heart of Millennium Park. The Beaux Arts building was designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge and has since evolved through eight major expansions, the latest of which established the Modern Wing, designed by Renzo Piano, 1998 Pritzker Prize Laureate, and his practice, Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The permanent collection presently includes over 300,000 works of art in fields ranging from Chinese bronzes to contemporary design and from textiles to installation art.

Past Pritzker Prize Laureates who have also been honored at the Art Institute of Chicago are the late Kevin Roche, 1982 Laureate, in the museum’s Stock Exchange Trading Room, the preserved and reconstructed Chicago Stock Exchange, originally designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler (1893/1894); and the late Gordon Bunshaft,1988 Laureate.

The site is recognized today as the former homelands of the Council of Three Fires: Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi Nations.

 

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The Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago

About Fundamentals

 

Transparency as Essential

 

Envisioning the Landscape

 

The Threshold System

 

The World's Community