Invited by the UED Master Lecture, renowned Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto held academic lectures titled "Local Community Sphere-ism" at the CBC Activity Center in Beijing and Jilin Jianzhu University, sharing with nearly a thousand attendees his design philosophy that changing the way we live is changing the city.
　　Yamamoto graduated from the Department of Architecture, College of Science and Engineering, Nihon University in his early years, and later obtained a master's degree in architecture from Tokyo University of the Arts. He founded Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop in 1973 and is currently a professor in the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Kogakuin University. He emphasizes the organic integration of architecture and environment, excels at incorporating the latest technological achievements into buildings, advocates the design principle that architectural space influences people's behavior, and reveals profound humanistic sentiment in his works. His works possess both unique individuality and natural integration with the surrounding environment; he believes this concept will be the direction of future architectural development.

Under the title "Local Community Sphere-ism," Yamamoto for the first time presented to Chinese architects, using his research data and works, the system of "one house = one family." The local community sphere he defines is a way of thinking about housing construction that considers residential space not merely as living space but in combination with a better living system. In today's world of surging population, energy shortages, and ever-changing building materials, he strongly feels that the sense of responsibility of architecture practitioners is at odds with the needs of society as a whole; therefore, this research project is both architecturally scientific and reflects Yamamoto's social responsibility in addressing current housing problems. Using his own hands-on works such as the Jianwai SOHO residential area in Beijing and the Tianjin Library Cultural Center as examples, he introduced the essence of the local community sphere concept.

Based on his understanding of the local community sphere, Yamamoto believes: "Break the traditional family model and integrate housing, commerce, and offices to address the aging problem brought about by current social population growth. Use new architectural models to change people's traditional way of life, create a virtuous-cycle living security system, and make people's lives more convenient and comfortable with harmonious neighborly relations." At the same time, Yamamoto also interpreted the future direction of housing development from a uniquely innovative perspective, exploring the relationship between contemporary demographic structure, housing, and society.

Here, Yamamoto also has a project expected to be completed in 2019—the Zurich Airport Circle complex in Switzerland. This is a complex at Zurich Airport including office buildings, hotels, and shops, totaling 270,000 square meters. Its design concepts are: first, Swissness—within the compact space of the Zurich Airport Circle complex, it expresses not only the high standards of Swiss living but also reflects Swiss modern beauty; second, surprise—the Zurich Airport Circle complex allows travelers and visitors to fully experience surprise and excitement; third, global connection—the Zurich Airport Circle complex makes travelers from around the world feel as comfortable as at home. Its functions involve health and beauty, education and knowledge, cultural activities, brand launches, consulting services, hotels, serviced apartments, headquarters, and offices. Its features include: a symbolic suspended facade, small town-like small volumes, and projecting louvers. The high-rise elements embody symbolic unification at the urban scale, while the low-rise elements embody diversity at the human scale.