Why did Riken Yamamoto win the Pritzker Prize 2024

the Pritzker Prize for the year 2024 was just  announced and the winner is Riken Yamamoto but   why was he chosen what makes him worthy of one  of the highest Awards in architecture the answer   perhaps lies in one word Community today in  this video we'll be looking at the story of   a Man For Whom the role of Architecture is  less to do with his own artistic Ambitions   and more about how it can serve not just the  owner but the people at large in trying to   understand why exactly he won the award we  might just uncover what the profession of   architecture should be about and what does  it truly mean to design for communities so   let's dive deeper into the life and designs  of the Pritzker winner for 2024 Riken Yamamoto now before we talk about the Pritzker prize I want  to talk about the stress of being an architect the   profession of design especially architecture is  a challenging one and if not managed correctly   it can lead to a lot of stress and anxiety I  have even shared my own journey of battling   with anxiety while I was studying architecture  on this YouTube channel the thing is we are   always just advised to push through but sometimes  things cannot be solved just by pushing through   or just by ignoring them basically sometimes you  need professional help if you're also somebody   going through Stress and Anxiety the sponsors of  today's video can help they are called BetterHelp   BetterHelp connects you with a licensed therapist  who is trained to listen and give you helpful and   unbiased advice and the best part is that this  therapy can be offered via phone or computer using   phone calls video calls or messaging whatever  form of communication you are comfortable with   with you can go to betterhelp.com/blessedarch or  select blessedarch during your sign up process   and get a special discount for your first month  I have left the link in the description below   and if you're struggling you really should check  them out and now let's go back to discussing the   Pritzker prize 2024 now in the introduction we  talked a lot about Community but to understand   what community and designing for it means for  Yamamoto we need to go back to his childhood born in the year 1945 in Beijing Yamamoto's family  had moved to Japan at the end of World War II when   he was just 5 years old his father passed away and  he was raised by his mother now in Japan he lived   in a home that was modeled after a traditional  Japanese machiya his mother had a pharmacy in   the front and the living area in the the rear so  he grew up watching how certain thresholds of a   house were to invite people in and the others for  his family's privacy but also how both were needed   to live a full life now Yamamoto's father used to  be an engineer and so when he grew up he wanted   to follow in his Father's Footsteps and in trying  to go down that path he found his true calling for   architecture he graduated from Nihon University in  1968 and then went on to pursue a master of arts   in architecture from Tokyo University but his true  learning of architecture actually came after his   university years after graduating Yamamoto  went on three major trips around the world he traveled along the mediterranian coast went to  Central and Southern America and even traveled to   India and Nepal in in these trips he tried to  cover as many villages as he could he connected   with people understood their society their culture  their architecture and because of these trips he   understood one fundamental thing that even though  these worlds appeared very different they were all   actually quite similar humanity and Community is  something he found as a constant throughout these   Villages and perhaps here is where he understood  that architecture needs to be of the community no   matter where it is in the world and no matter how  secluded it is so these younger years defined the   role of architecture and Architects for him when  he came back he founded his own practice this   practice today has spanned 50 years and Yamamoto  has been involved in some incredible projects and   these projects are in multiple countries of  multiple scales and with multiple functions   the they're all very different from each other all  holding a different identity and yet all carry one   thing in common and that is Yamamoto's underlying  design philosophy you see in this modern world   we're becoming more and more secluded nuclear  families are replacing traditional families   and individual privacy is given a lot more  importance and of course everybody has the   right to live however they want but somehow  in trying to Define boundaries for the self   our modern society has created isolated beings  community and what it truly means to support   each other is somehow going away and Yamamoto  recognizes this he believes that members of a   community should sustain one another and every  piece of architecture no matter how small or big   is part of a larger community and this belief  forms the underlying Philosophy for all his   designs to better understand this I have selected  three of his projects which hopefully can help you   comprehend how he designed spaces and boundaries  the first is this Yamakawa Villa in this project   the house is designed to entirely feel like an  open air Terrace and enjoyed during the warmer   months the Terrace seamlessly transitions into  the dining and living areas and the bedrooms and   toilets are placed in their own private spaces in  this project he was able to blur the definitive   boundaries that one creates for their own homes by  opening up the house he not only brings it closer   to the Natural and built environments inviting  them in he also created a threshold that welcomes   both guests and passers by the second project is  the Hiroshima Nishi fire station in Japan it is   a building that appears entirely transparent  this is purposefully done so that the people   of the city can see the firefighters and how they  train to keep the community safe this transparency   establishes a dialogue between the city and those  who work to protect it the third project is the   Saitama perfect university in Japan this campus  is composed of nine buildings but in this project   you will never know where one building ends and  the other Begins the buildings are connected by   Terraces that transition into walkways basically  creating transparent volumes that allow views   from one classroom to another what this does is  that it blurs the boundaries between different   departments and affirms the whole Institute as a  place of learning where people don't just learn   from the teachers but also from each other  and the spaces of this campus encourage that   he has taken these nine different buildings of  a university and created a giant Community out   of it [Music] now in each of these projects  Yamamoto's Focus lies on the boundary on the   threshold between public and private in all of  his Works he's trying to connect the users to   the world Beyond understanding that architecture  is not just about the design of spaces but also   about the enclosure that define those spaces now  I know to a lot of people these design Solutions   might not sound new or exciting in or Innovative  but there are something much better than all of   these they are solutions that actually work  the genius of Yamamoto's designs is not that   each project screams iconic and has some newer  never seen before technology the genius lies   in the fact that each of these projects are  different from each other and yet are able to   serve the same purpose of bringing people closer  to their communities project after project Design   After design the reason for this award is the  persistence to serve the community at large I   want to read a few lines from the Pritzker prize  announcement 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 boundaries between public and private   Yamamoto contributes positively beyond the  brief to enable Community he is a reassuring   architect who brings dignity to Everyday Life  normality becomes extraordinary calmness leads   to Splendor at 78 years of age Yamamoto continues  to practice and reside in Yokohama in community   with his neighbors and he has now become the 53rd  laureate of the Pritzker architecture [Music] prize and that was it you guys that was my  video on Riken Yamamoto and why he won the   pritzker but what do you guys think about  this win let me know in the comments below   I will soon make a video about some projects  that have defined his career and led him to   win a Pritzker prize in 2024 so look out for  that you can also check out the other videos   on my channel including the documentaries I  make on Architects I will leave some links on   the screen and that was it I will see you guys  soon with more such videos until then bye-bye

Channel: BlessedArch

Views: 118,130

Keywords: yt:cc=on, blessedarch, pritzker prize, pritzker architecture prize, pritzker 2024, architecture prize 2024, prizker prize 2024, prizker prize

Id: oHH_y1l-KxE

Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2024