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.

What the Pritzker Jury Recognized

The Pritzker Prize is awarded for a body of work rather than a single building, and Liu Jiakun’s career stood out for its consistent grounding in place. Over more than two decades, his Chengdu-based practice has pursued an architecture that responds to local climate, available materials, and the daily lives of ordinary residents. The recognition highlighted his ability to work within the dense, fast-changing conditions of contemporary Chinese cities while still creating spaces that feel calm, human in scale, and rooted in tradition.

A Material-First Approach

A defining feature of Liu Jiakun’s work is his pragmatic, resourceful use of materials. Rather than relying on imported or high-cost finishes, he tends to build with what is locally accessible, including brick, concrete, stone, and bamboo. This approach keeps projects affordable and connected to their setting, and it gives his buildings a tactile, honest character. The use of local craftsmanship also supports regional building traditions and the workers who carry them, an idea that runs through projects such as the Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Art Museum and the West Village complex.

Architecture for Public Life

Many of Liu Jiakun’s most discussed projects are civic in nature, offering shared space back to the community. The West Village in Chengdu is a clear example, wrapping a large open courtyard with continuous public routes so residents can walk, exercise, and gather freely. This emphasis on porous, accessible ground floors and shared courtyards reflects a belief that buildings should contribute to collective life rather than simply occupy a site. In rapidly densifying cities, that generosity toward the public realm is part of what made his work feel significant to the jury.

Why This Award Matters

The Pritzker Prize has often signaled where the broader profession is looking for direction. Recognizing an architect known for restraint, local materials, and community-focused public space points to a continued shift away from spectacle and toward thoughtful, context-driven design. For students and emerging practitioners, Liu Jiakun’s path offers an encouraging model. It shows that a regionally focused practice, built on careful observation and modest means, can earn the highest honor in the field without chasing scale for its own sake.

Further Exploring His Work

Readers interested in studying Liu Jiakun more closely can begin with the two projects highlighted here and trace the threads that connect them. Look at how circulation invites the public inside, how natural elements such as water, bamboo, and light shape the experience of moving through a space, and how each material is left expressive rather than hidden. Comparing his cultural buildings with his commercial and urban projects reveals a consistent design philosophy applied across very different programs, which is often the clearest way to understand an architect’s contribution.