Shohei Shigematsu wins the 2024 Mainichi Design Award, one of Japanese design's most coveted honors

Architect and OMA Partner Shohei Shigematsu has been awarded the prestigious 2024 Mainichi Design Award by the Japanese Mainichi Shimbun newspaper for his outstanding career-long contributions to different fields included under the broad-reaching umbrella of design.

Shigematsu was particularly noted for his work on the recent Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition and the new Toranomon Hills Station Tower in Tokyo. 

His influence over the industry has grown since first bursting into the spotlight as the young face of OMA's New York operation. 

The award is marketed as recognizing "individuals, groups, and organizations that produced and presented significant works in the fields of architecture, fashion/textile design, product design, graphic design, interior design, lighting design, installation/environmental design, electronic media design, and craft design."

Commissions for famous fashion houses, collaborations with artists such as Marina Abramović, other retail work, and corporate tie-ins have added to his portfolio of significant buildings designed in nearly every conceivable scale and project category. 

"Sho," as he is known to friends and colleagues, has also enjoyed a parallel academic career with stops at the Columbia GSAPP, Harvard GSD, Cornell AAP, and most recently, Kyushu University, where he studied architecture before joining OMA in the late 1990s.

Speaking in a press release, Shigematsu said: "It’s an honor to be recognized by the Japanese design community and receive an award that’s acknowledged such highly esteemed designers before me. I will carry it as a source of encouragement and inspiration."

The Fukuoka-born Shigematsu joins Issei Miyake, Tadao Ando, Ryue Nishizawa, the SONY corporation, and Shiro Kuramata on a list of past winners of the sought-after honor, which was first established as the Mainichi Industrial Design Award in 1955. An award ceremony honoring his achievements will be held in Tokyo on April 17th.