Chinese architect Liu Jiakun has been awarded the 2025 Pritzker Prize for his architecture, which prioritizes cultural continuity, public space, and material innovation. Known for avoiding a fixed style, his work responds to the specific needs of each site, integrating historical references with modern construction techniques. His projects, such as the West Village in Chengdu and the Shuijingfang Museum, emphasize community engagement and sustainable materials, including his “Rebirth Bricks” made from earthquake debris. The Pritzker jury highlighted his ability to merge architecture with infrastructure and landscape, creating spaces that support daily life rather than seeking visual dominance. With a career shaped by literature, painting, and architecture, Liu’s work represents a thoughtful, human-centered approach to design that remains deeply rooted in the evolving urban and cultural landscape of China.
The 2025 Pritzker Prize has been awarded to Liu Jiakun from China for his architecture, which emphasizes local identity, environmental awareness, and social responsibility over stylistic expression. As the founder of Jiakun Architects, Liu has built a career in creating spaces that reflect the cultural and material history of their surroundings, blending traditional influences with modern construction techniques. His projects, primarily in Chengdu and Chongqing, demonstrate a methodology that adapts to the specific needs of each site, ensuring that architecture serves as an extension of the landscape, infrastructure, and daily life. The jury recognized his ability to develop architecture as a process-driven discipline, where function and community engagement take precedence over visual spectacle.
Liu’s designs reinterpret traditional Chinese architecture through contemporary means. His Museum of Imperial Kiln Brick in Suzhou incorporates elements reminiscent of historic pavilions, while the Shanghai campus for Novartis reflects the tiered forms of pagodas, yet both projects avoid direct imitation. He has consistently argued that tradition should inspire architectural principles rather than dictate formal elements, positioning his work as a response to the trend of superficial historicism in modern Chinese architecture. His commitment to material innovation is exemplified by his use of “Rebirth Bricks,” developed after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Made by repurposing rubble with wheat stalks and cement, these bricks have been integrated into multiple projects, including the Shuijingfang Museum, which preserves the legacy of the world’s oldest wine shop while engaging with contemporary construction methods.
Liu’s impact extends beyond individual buildings into large-scale urban interventions such as the West Village in Chengdu. This project reimagines a city block as a layered public realm, incorporating pedestrian pathways, green spaces, and social hubs within a five-story structure. By integrating nature into high-density environments, Liu challenges the dominance of large-scale high-rise developments, advocating for cities where public space remains a central priority. His focus on balancing density with accessibility demonstrates a thoughtful approach to urbanization, in which architecture mediates between the built environment and the social fabric of the city.
His unconventional path to architecture was influenced by his early interests in literature and painting. Born in 1956, he initially pursued writing before enrolling at the Chongqing Institute of Architecture and Engineering. His formative years coincided with China’s transition from state-controlled design institutions to an era of market-driven practice, allowing him to establish Jiakun Architects in 1999 as one of the country’s earliest private firms. His career has since been shaped by an evolving methodology that prioritizes adaptability, material integrity, and a deep engagement with the cultural and historical contexts of his projects.
Despite gaining international recognition, Liu’s completed works remain exclusively in China. While he acknowledges that his methodology could be applied to international contexts, he stresses that a thorough understanding of place and culture is essential to his process. The Pritzker jury highlighted wisdom as a defining characteristic of his architecture—an ability to interpret and translate the needs of a site into meaningful spatial solutions. In an era that often celebrates formal experimentation and technological advancement, Liu Jiakun’s Pritzker Prize win reinforces the value of an architecture that is measured, context-driven, and fundamentally human-centered.
Gallery
