Liu Jiakun: The 2025 Pritzker Prize Winner

The Pritzker Architecture Prize, also known as the “Nobel Prize of Architecture,” is the most prestigious global award in the field of architecture. Since 1979, the Pritzker Prize has been awarded to architects who have made significant contributions to architecture worldwide.

Liu Jiakun born in 1956, known for his focus on minimalistm, humanism, and traditional contexual design. Jiakun Architects that has completed more than 30 projects are launched in 1999 by Liu Jiakun in Chengdu.

The 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner is Chinese architect Liu Jiakun. His impressive works, such as the West Village complex and the Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Art Museum, emphasize the use of local materials and craftsmanship. Liu Jiakun’s architectural style blends traditional Chinese materials and elements with contemporary spaces. He has numerous innovative projects that harmonize vernacular elements with modern design principles.

His works are often located in densely populated cities in China and are primarily related to large scale, cultural, commercial, urban planning and public spaces. Here are some of his most remarkable projects:

• West Village in Chengdu (2015)

  The West Village is a unique, circular commercial complex with a park-like inner area, featuring smaller bamboo courtyards within larger ones, designed to foster diverse public life and open to free pedestrian access. Located in Chengdu, China

  

• Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Art Museum (2008)

  The new museum complex, located in a spiritually resonant ‘luye’ near Fu River, integrates bamboo trees and natural elements to separate spaces, with a ramp leading visitors through a lotus pond to an atrium, dividing administrative areas from exhibition spaces that unfold around a roofed courtyard.

  

• The Sichuan Cultural Park (2013)
  
  The Chengdu Culture Park, located in the West Section 2 of the 1st Ring Road near Qingyang Taoist Temple in Chengdu, China. The project features greenery, a lake, large stones, statues, a teahouse, and towers. Originally created in the 1950s as a flower exhibition avenue, it was later transformed into the Qingyang Temple Garden and renamed in 1966. Notable features include the Relief Art Wall, the Shi’er Qiao Martyrs’ Tombs, and the Zhiji Rock and Octagonal Pavilion.

  

  Liu has received many prestigious awards in East Asia, in addition to the Pritzker Prize. His designs have been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Architecture Biennale and a solo exhibition at the AEDES Gallery in Berlin. In 2018, he was commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion in Beijing, which gained significant international attention.