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The Pritzker Architecture Prize presents Community: The Architect as Catalyst for Change, the 2024 Laureate Lecture and Panel Discussion

May 9, 2024

The Pritzker Architecture Prize and Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture, in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center, present Community: The Architect as Catalyst for Change, the 2024 Laureate Lecture and Panel Discussion, taking place at the university’s historic S.R. Crown Hall on Thursday, May 16th at 6:00pm CDT.

Riken Yamamoto, 2024 Laureate of the Pritzker Prize, will uncover his personal journey in the discovery of communities throughout the world, inspiring his socially-driven architecture that blurs the boundaries between public and private dimensions. “Every house exists within a town and every family exists within the community of townspeople. The relationship between community and family—the threshold of space between the town and a house—is what allows a community to exist forever,” explains Yamamoto.

“Whether he designs private houses or public infrastructure, schools or fire stations, city halls or museums, the common and convivial dimension is always present,” states the 2024 Jury Citation, in part. “His constant, careful and substantial attention to community has generated public interworking space systems that incentivize people to convene in different ways.”

Following the lecture, Yamamoto will be joined by recent Laureates, Sir David Chipperfield CH (2023), Francis Kéré (2022) and Anne Lacaton (2021), who will engage in a personal conversation about their very different paths of life. Sharing a deep commitment to the value of the social system, they will discuss the responsibility of the architect as a catalyst for change and debate respective challenges of creating and bridging communities as they shape new approaches to the design of the built environment.

“Riken Yamamoto has managed to create a body of work that is consistently ambitious and responsible,” comments Chipperfield. “The buildings manage to be both elegant and meaningful, always looking to have architectural and physical presence while at the same time celebrating ideas of community and social purpose.”

The event is free and open to the public but capacity will be limited and registration is required: bit.ly/2024-laureate-lecture. The program will also be livestreamed to audiences at Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture, Yokohama National University, Japan, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and viewable worldwide at bit.ly/laureate-lecture-livestream.

Riken Yamamoto is the 53rd Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and resides in Yokohama, Japan. The 2024 ceremony video will be released this fall.

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About the Pritzker Architecture Prize 
The Pritzker Architecture Prize was founded in 1979 by the late Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, Cindy. Its purpose is to honor annually a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.

About Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture 
The College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology builds on a legacy of disciplined experimentation in materials and technologies to educate and inspire the next generation of architects and landscape architects. From its landmark campus and home at S. R. Crown Hall, IIT Architecture champions an interdisciplinary approach to education and research that is simultaneously local and global in its impact. Visit arch.iit.edu.

About the Chicago Architecture Center 
The Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1966, dedicated to inspiring people to discover why design matters. A national leader in architecture and design education, the CAC offers tours, programs, exhibitions, and more that are part of a dynamic journey of lifelong learning. Visit architecture.org to learn more and follow @chiarchitecture and #chiarchitecture on social media.