Chinese architect Liu Jiakun has solidified his status as one of the world’s top architects, after he was named the winner of the prestigious 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize, which has been dubbed the “Nobel Prize of architecture.”
In a statement released yesterday, the award’s organiser, the Hyatt Foundation, announced the 68-year old as the award’s 54th laureate, praising his “affirming architecture that celebrates the lives of ordinary citizens.”
The jury mentioned that Liu’s “outstanding body of work” was not tied down to any particular aesthetic or style, and that he is able to construct “a whole new scenario of daily life.”
On winning the award, Liu told CNN that he was “a little surprised” by the recognition and reacted by attempting to be “like water.”
In a career stretching 40 years, Liu, who works from his birthplace of Chengdu in Sichuan province, has had a hand in over thirty projects. The architect and his firm Jiakun Architects have designed commercial, cultural and academic buildings.
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Some of his projects, including Suzhou’s Museum of Imperial Kiln Brick, and the Shanghai campus of the Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis, are informed by Chinese architecture, as they hark back to traditional design elements such as pavilions and multi-leveled pagodas.
Liu, however, explained to CNN that he draws on the intangible themes of tradition, as opposed to their physical elements, in a utilitarian approach that has allowed his work to avoid being a mere homage.
As the Pritzker jury said: “Liu Jiakun revisits the Chinese tradition without nostalgic approach nor ambiguity, but as a springboard for innovation.”
This approach is well demonstrated by the Shuijingfang Museum in Chengdu, which was built by using “rebirth bricks” that were made by Liu’s firm using debris from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, which left 90,000 people dead or missing.
Liu is set to receive his award at a ceremony that will take place in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi in spring. Past winners of the award include Japan’s Riken Yamamoto, who was named the winner in 2024, and Wang Shu, who earned the prize in 2012, making him the first Chinese national to hold the honour.
