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Pritzker Prize goes to Japanese architect who values community in spaces both public and private

Published

11 months ago

March 5, 2024

Pritzker Prize goes to Japanese architect who values community in spaces both public and private

The Pritzker Architecture Prize has been awarded to Japan’s Riken Yamamoto, who earns the field’s highest honor for what organizers called a long career focused on “multiplying opportunities for people to meet spontaneously, through precise, rational design strategies.”

Yamamoto, 78, has spent a five-decade career designing both private and public buildings — from residences to museums to schools, from a bustling airport center to a glass-walled fire station — and prizing a spirit of community in all spaces.

“By the strong, consistent quality of his buildings, he aims to dignify, enhance and enrich the lives of individuals — from children to elders — and their social connections,” the jury said, in part, in a citation released Tuesday. “For him, a building has a public function even when it is private.”

In an interview from Yokohama, where he is based, Yamamoto said he was both proud and “amazed” to win the prize, seen as the Nobel of architecture, at this point in his career.

“Soon I will be 79 years old,” he said. “This prize is a big moment for me. In the near future I think many people will listen to me very carefully. Maybe I can say my opinion more easily than before.”

The architect explained that his craft is not simply to design buildings, but to design in the context of their surroundings, and hopefully to impact the surroundings as well.

A key example: Yamamoto’s virtually transparent Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station, designed in 2000, with a facade, interior walls and floors made of glass. The building invites the public to experience the daily activities of firefighters, something it rarely sees. The result encourages passersby “to view and engage with those who are protecting the community, resulting in a reciprocal commitment between the civil servants and the citizens they serve,” organizers said.

Normally, Yamamoto said, a fire station would be built from concrete. He had a different perspective, which he submitted in a competition with other architects.

“I proposed a very radical idea,” Yamamoto said. “The idea was that the fire house should be the center of the community. Not only their fire work but their daily life should be the center, because they are living at the place, for 24 hours they have activities.” He described firefighters training with ropes and ladders in a central atrium visible from outside.

“Many young children come to see,” he said. “It’s very interesting for them.”

A more recent design with a similar concept is The Circle at Zurich’s airport, designed in 2020, a major commercial center for shops, restaurants, hotels and a convention hall. Yamamoto said he aimed to create an open, 24-hour hour environment, a space to welcome city residents as well travelers.

“I proposed a very open system,” he said, “no gate, no entrance, no door.” He said snow or rain sometimes enters the space via a partially open roof.

Another noted design is the Hotakubo housing project in Kumamoto, Japan, Yamamoto’s first social housing project, made up of 110 homes in 16 “clusters.”

“How do you make a community out of 110 family houses?” he mused in an interview about the 1991 design. “It is very difficult.” Most apartments, he noted, are boxes inside of a bigger box. “It’s very easy to create privacy, but very difficult to make a community because each house is independent,” he said.

The architect’s solution: a tree-lined plaza at the center that can only be entered via a residence. In this way, he explained, he was able to combine the private with the public, giving individual families their privacy while promoting connections between them. Terraces also overlook the common space.

Yamamoto was born in China in 1945 and raised in Japan from early childhood. He said he first grew attracted to architecture while still in high school. He received a master’s degree in architecture from Tokyo University in 1971, and founded his own practice two years later.

Many of his ideas on community were inspired by three extensive trips he took early in his career — not to famous monuments but instead to villages around the world, he said, in Europe, North Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. In such villages, he examined the relationship of the family unit to the broader community and explored the idea of a “threshold” between public and private space. He also said he was inspired by the writings of philosopher Hannah Arendt.

A book by Yamamoto, “The Space of Power, The Power of Space,” is due to be published next month, an English translation of his 2015 work.

Yamamoto, who lives and works in Yokohama and has held numerous teaching positions, is the 53rd laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, established in 1979 by the late entrepreneur Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, Cindy. Winners receive a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion.

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Trump plans crypto-friendly orders in first few days in power

Published

1 hour ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

Trump plans crypto-friendly orders in first few days in power

President-elect Donald Trump is planning to use his executive powers to reduce the regulatory burden faced by cryptocurrency companies and promote digital asset adoption in his first few days in office, according to three people briefed on the plan.

World

Israel says cease-fire begins after 3-hour delay over list of hostage names

Published

2 hours ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

Israel says cease-fire begins after 3-hour delay over list of hostage names

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Israel confirmed late Sunday morning a long-awaited cease-fire has gone into effect after a three-hour delay caused by Hamas not releasing the names of the three hostages it plans to release.

The agreement was set to go into effect Sunday at 8:30 a.m. local time, but was delayed until 11:15 a.m. local time. Jerusalem is seven hours ahead of Eastern time.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security situation assessment over the delay in receiving the list of hostages who are expected to be released Sunday morning as part of a cease-fire agreement with Hamas, which eventually provided the names.

Hamas said a couple of hours after the agreement was scheduled to go into effect that it would be releasing hostages Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Demari, 27, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, on Sunday. Israel confirmed it has received the names. The hostages are expected to be released later Sunday.

Earlier, Netanyahu told the Israeli Defense Forces that the cease-fire would not begin until Israel had the list of hostages expected to be freed. Since Hamas had not given the names of the hostages by the time the cease-fire was set to start, the IDF continued to operate, as it was still striking inside Gaza. At least eight Gazans have been killed in IDF strikes since the cease-fire was set to begin, according to a Hamas-run agency.

“As of this morning, Hamas has not fulfilled its obligation, and contrary to the agreement, has not provided the State of Israel with the names of the returning female hostages up to this time. The ceasefire will not come into effect as long as Hamas does not fulfill its obligations,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said earlier on Sunday.

WHAT TO EXPECT AS ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE GOES INTO EFFECT ON SUNDAY

Romi Gonen, Emily Demari, and Doron Steinbrecher. (Fox News)

Hamas had said the delay in providing the names was due to “technical field reasons” and added that it is committed to the cease-fire deal announced last week.

The terror group released a statement after the cease-fire began, pledging to the people of Gaza “to be the trustees of their rights and defenders of them, until the complete liberation of the land and the holy sites.”

“The whole world today must stand in reverence for the legendary steadfastness of our people in Gaza, and in appreciation of their patience and sacrifices over the course of 471 days,” Hamas said.

“With the entry into force of the ceasefire, we affirm our commitment to implementing the terms of the agreement, which is the fruit of the steadfastness and patience of our great people, and the legendary steadfastness of our valiant resistance in the face of the zionist machine of terrorism and killing,” the statement continued.

Israel’s Cabinet approved the deal early Saturday morning for a cease-fire in Gaza that would include the release of dozens of hostages and pause the war with Hamas that began after the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish State.

The deal would allow 33 hostages to be set free over the next six weeks, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The remaining hostages are set to be released in a second phase that will be negotiated during the first.

“Our heroic prisoners have an appointment with freedom starting today, and this is our firm pledge with them always, until they break the shackles of the jailer and breathe freedom in the skies of Palestine,” Hamas said in its statement.

Hamas agreed to release three female hostages on the first day of the deal, four on the seventh day and the remaining 26 over the next five weeks.

A girl pauses at a mural of female Israeli soldiers held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. Hebrew reads: “look them in the eyes.” (AP)

Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without a lasting cease-fire and a full Israeli withdrawal.

This is the second cease-fire achieved during the war.

Gaza is expected to receive a surge in humanitarian aid when the cease-fire begins.

“We are monitoring the operations of bringing in aid and providing relief to our people with everything necessary, and we confirm that all efforts will be made to provide all the necessary support and assistance requirements to restore the cycle of life in the Gaza Strip to normal,” Hamas said in its statement.

ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES WILL RECEIVE HOSTAGES SUNDAY WITH EQUIPPED CAMPER TRAILERS AND COMFORTING SUPPLIES

A wall covered with photos of hostages held in the Gaza Strip after the deadly Oct 7 Hamas attack calling for the release of the hostages on January 17, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

The 15-month-long war in Gaza started when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which roughly 1,200 people wer killed and about 250 others were abducted, prompting military retaliation from Israeli forces. Nearly 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza.

More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s offensive, according to the Hamas-run government’s local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and terrorists.

World

Photos: Palestinians in Gaza celebrate the ceasefire

Published

3 hours ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

Photos: Palestinians in Gaza celebrate the ceasefire

Celebrations have erupted across Gaza after a ceasefire in the war-ravaged territory came into effect on Sunday morning.

The ceasefire was announced more than two hours later than scheduled due to a dispute between Israel and Hamas over naming the captives to be freed under the deal.

Earlier on Sunday, Hamas named three captives it plans to release later in the day.

Israel’s cabinet approved the ceasefire on Saturday in a rare session during the Jewish Sabbath, more than two days after mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States announced the deal.