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.