World
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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June 1, 2026
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Colombia’s first-round presidential election, won by tough-talking conservative Abelardo de la Espriella, signaled what analysts describe as a growing backlash across Latin America against leftist governments.
The presidential election could carry significant implications for U.S. interests in the region, including drug trafficking, migration and regional stability, as voters increasingly prioritize security, counternarcotics policies and economic stability ahead of a June 21 runoff between de la Espriella and leftist candidate Ivan Cepeda.
“For the Trump administration, a Colombia that recommits itself to security cooperation, counternarcotics efforts, and stronger democratic institutions would be a major win and an important step forward towards restoring stability across the Western Hemisphere,” Melissa Ford Maldonado of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) told Fox News Digital from Colombia.
ANTI-CARTEL HARDLINER CHANNELS TRUMP IN BID TO END COLOMBIA’S LEFTIST ERA IN PIVOTAL ELECTION
Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella of the political movement Defenders of the Homeland reacts after the results of the first round of the presidential election, in Barranquilla, Colombia May 31, 2026. (Sergio Acero/reuters )
“What happens in Colombia affects the flow of drugs into American communities, the strength of transnational criminal networks, migration pressures and the broader balance between democratic governments and criminalized regimes throughout the region,” she added.
The first-round winner, de la Espriella, a conservative lawyer and political outsider known as “El Tigre” (“The Tiger”), has emerged as the face of Colombia’s security-focused shift.
An admirer of President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, won 43.7% of the vote Sunday, outperforming most polls and advancing to a runoff against left-wing Cepeda, the candidate backed by President Gustavo Petro.
His campaign has centered on a hardline crackdown on criminal organizations, which he argues have flourished under Petro’s “Total Peace” policy.
Supporters of Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella of the political movement Defenders of the Homeland react to the results of the first round of the presidential election, in Barranquilla, Colombia May 31, 2026. (Charlie Cordero/Reuters)
In an interview with the Associated Press, de la Espriella pledged to open mega-prisons and take a far more aggressive approach toward criminal groups. “Criminals will either surrender or leave the country,” he said.
The vote comes as Colombia faces rising violence, expanding criminal organizations and growing criticism of President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” strategy, which sought negotiations with armed groups and criminal networks.
AT LEAST 80 PEOPLE KILLED IN NORTHEAST COLOMBIA AS PEACE TALKS FAIL, OFFICIAL SAYS
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro attends the COP16 Summit in Cali, Valle del Cauca, on Oct. 29, 2024. (Luis Acosta/AFP)
“Colombia heads into a June 21 runoff with armed groups controlling vast stretches of the country, a failed ‘Total Peace’ negotiating strategy leaving communities more exposed than when it began, and a Venezuelan refugee crisis that has overwhelmed the state’s already thin capacity to govern its own territory,” Daniel Swift, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Fox News Digital.
Maldonado said Colombia’s election reflects a wider political shift taking place across Latin America.
“This election is part of a broader trend across Latin America, where voters are increasingly rejecting the failed promises of the left in favor of security, sovereignty and economic opportunity,” she said.
ECUADOR’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION GOES TO RUNOFF BETWEEN CONSERVATIVE INCUMBENT, LEFTIST LAWYER
Colombia’s presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda of the Pacto Historico party speaks to supporters during his final campaign rally in Barranquilla, Atlántico department, on May 24, 2026. (Vanessa Romero/AFP)
“We’ve seen it in Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Honduras, Costa Rica and now increasingly in Colombia.”
Swift agreed the election results reflect a broader regional trend.
He said with de la Espriella outperforming “every poll, with security at the top of every voter’s mind — confirms that Colombia is part of a broader regional reckoning: Latin Americans are losing patience with governments that cannot provide security,” Swift said.
Maldonado said the results reflected mounting frustration with the country’s direction under Petro.
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A supporter of Colombia’s presidential candidate for the Defensores de la Patria party, Abelardo de la Espriella, takes a selfie as she awaits his arrival to his last campaign rally in Barranquilla, Colombia, on May 23, 2026. (Vanessa Romero/AFP via Getty Images)
“Years of growing insecurity, rising coca cultivation, expanding criminal organizations, and concessions to armed groups have left many Colombian people frustrated with the direction of the country,” she added.
The June 21 runoff is expected to focus heavily on security policy, organized crime and Colombia’s future relationship with the United States under the Trump administration. Maldonado argues it “offers Colombia an opportunity to begin reversing course and reestablish a principle that should have never been up for debate: criminal organizations should be confronted, not negotiated with.”
The EU and European Parliament on Monday agreed a controversial law aimed at speeding up the return of migrants with no legal right to stay in Europe, marking the bloc’s toughest migration policy shift in decades.
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Policymakers say the so-called Return Regulation is key to accelerating returns and is the cornerstone of the EU’s crackdown on irregular migration.
It also reflects a broader political shift in Europe, with conservatives — sometimes backed by the far right — pushing for a tougher approach to migration.
According to official figures, only 29% of migrants with no legal right to remain in Europe leave the EU.
“This is a really very important step in making sure that we have control over what is happening in the EU, over who comes but also who has to leave the EU,” Home Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner told reporters at the end of the talks.
At the heart of the law is a provision allowing EU countries to set up deportation centres outside the bloc, known as return hubs, if they conclude an agreement with a non-EU country.
“The next step is working more on migration diplomacy, together with third countries,” Brunner said, avoiding mentioning any possible third country to place return hubs.
The hubs can be either places of transit or locations where a person is expected to stay, marking a significant departure from current rules.
Most migrants can only be returned to their country of origin or to a country with which they have a proven connection. Under the new system, that requirement would be removed. Only unaccompanied minors would be exempt from being deported to a return hub, while families with children will be eligible.
Some EU countries are already working to identify potential partner countries for future return centres. Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Greece teamed up last March to implement the controversial project, while Italy is already running a similar scheme in Albania, with two centres accommodating fewer than a hundred migrants in total.
The law also allows EU countries to search a “place of residence or other relevant premises” of irregular migrants, a provision that NGOs and civil society compare to the notorious raids conducted by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“The provision is vague on purpose, to allow a broad interpretation in the different member states. It opens the doors to home raids and also raids in the premises of associations helping migrants and healthcare facilities,” Eleonora Celoria from Asgi, an Italian association of legal experts, told Euronews.
While she acknowledged that in many member states, police will still need a judicial warrant to enter private residences, she described the law as “worrying”, as it can encourage authorities to broaden their powers.
Other provisions include longer detention periods, tougher entry bans and new powers to locate irregular migrants.
The maximum legal detention period for irregular migrants waiting to be returned is increased from six months to two years, with a possible six-month extension and an unlimited duration for persons considered as posing a security risk.
Entry bans would also become significantly tougher, rising from five to ten years in most cases, with the possibility of lifetime bans for those considered a security risk.
Another change concerns appeals. Under current rules, deportations are automatically suspended while legal challenges are pending, while the new law would end that automatic protection, leaving courts to decide on a case-by-case basis whether a return order should be halted.
The regulation also introduces a European Return Order to facilitate the mutual recognition of return decisions across member states, but it will remain voluntary.
The implementation timeline was the most difficult issue in negotiations between the Council and Parliament. Under the compromise deal, some provisions will take effect 12 months after the regulation enters into force. The Council initially pushed for two years.
Civil society associations and left-wing MEPs have criticised the text, saying it will put migrant lives in danger and violate fundamental rights.
“The text finalised today is the result of a shameful agreement: the legal arsenal serving a xenophobic ideology is now complete,” Greens/EFA MEP Mélissa Camara told Euronews after the talks concluded.
“This regulation will create a draconian detention and deportation system, from holding people in immigration detention for up to 30 months to tearing families apart and sending people to countries they do not know,” said Silvia Carta, advocacy officer at Picum, a network of different organisations supporting undocumented migrants.
The law will now need to be formally approved by MEPs and EU countries and could enter into force as soon as next month.
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