Riken Yamamoto wins 2024 Pritzker Architecture Prize

Concerned that the modern Japanese city is becoming increasingly cramped, Riken Yamamoto has built inviting houses with inner courtyards and elevated terraces. The jury called it "a new architectural language that not only creates spaces for families to live in, but also communities for families to live together." 78-year-old Yamamoto is the ninth winner from Japan.

Considered a likely winner for years, the British architect finally won the prize in 2023. The jury citation described David Chipperfield as "radical in his restraint" yet demonstrating "reverence for history and culture." In Germany, he has made a significant impact on Berlin's Museum Island. He also designed the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach. He has designed over 100 projects worldwide.

Born in Burkina Faso in 1965, Francis Kéré has lived in Germany since 1985. He runs the Kéré Architecture office in Berlin. In his work, Kéré relies on regional materials and traditional local craftsmanship. Kéré designed this elementary school, built in 2001, in his hometown of Gando.

Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal met while studying in Bordeaux in the 1970s. They later worked in Niger, which still has an impact on their building work today. They vehemently oppose the demolition of social housing. Pictured here is the Palais de Tokyo exhibition building in the French capital, which opened in 2002 and is one of the best-known buildings from their joint Paris office.

The Irish architects were the fourth and fifth women to win the prestigious prize in its 41-year history. Their Dublin-based firm, Grafton Architects, is renowned for concrete and stone designs. The judges lauded the pair for buildings that "maintain a human scale and achieve intimate environments." The Bocconi University (pictured) in Milan is one of their acclaimed designs.

Having designed buildings since the 1960s, the late Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki, was long considered a visionary in the field and lauded for his futurist designs. He has 100 built works to his name, including the Qatar National Convention Center (picture). "In his search for meaningful architecture, he created buildings of great quality that to this day defy categorizations," said the jury.

Pictured here is the Aranya low-cost housing project by Balkrishna Doshi in Indore, India, which accommodates over 80,000 people through a system of houses, courtyards and internal pathways. The Indian architect, who died in 2023, was lauded by the Pritzker jury in 2018 for his bodywork that has "touched lives of every socio-economic class across a broad spectrum of genres since the 1950s."

Their architecture is "rooted and turned towards the world." The jury awarded the Spanish trio the Pritzker Prize in 2017 with this citation. Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramón Vilalta are architects who are active in small towns. Their best-known projects include the public space at La Lira Theater in Ripoll and the El Petit Comte kindergarten in Besalú (pictured).

Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has been leading a "Do Tank," a more active version of a think tank, since 2001. Together with his four partners, his firm Elemental integrates people and the environment in their projects. This Innovation Center on the Catholic University in Santiago de Chile campus is 14 stories high, adapts to the climate and protects against the sun and heat.

Frei Otto's constructions are a tribute to the lightness of form and material. His most renowned creation is the filigree roof of Munich's Olympic Stadium (pictured). The German architect received the Pritzker Prize posthumously but learned of the honor before he died in 2015. "I never did anything to receive this prize," he had said then.

Born in Tokyo to a haute couture designer and an engineer at Toyota, Shigeru Ban combines aesthetics with engineering skill. Inspired by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto's focus on regional context and material, Ban has created temporary housing facilities, including a shelter made of paper tubes, for use after natural disasters. Pictured here is the Pompidou Center that he built in Metz, France.

Toyo Ito built this apartment building on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona in 2009. Its undulating exterior cladding is reminiscent of the Catalan city's most famous son, Antoni Gaudí. Such curved shapes are the trademark of the Japanese architect Toyo Ito, who uses them to lend his buildings an organic and physical quality.