After more than four decades of shaping China’s architectural landscape, Liu Jiakun has been honored with the prestigious Pritzker Prize.
Liu Jiakun’s work aligns with the recent trend seen in Pritzker laureates such as Riken Yamamoto (2024), Sir David Alan Chipperfield (2023), and Francis Kéré, all of whom have sought a balance between aesthetics, sustainability, and social consciousness.
The Pritzker award ceremony will take place in spring at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by Jean Nouvel.
As the third Chinese architect to receive what is often regarded as the “Nobel Prize of Architecture”, Liu Jiakun has distinguished himself by redefining urban typologies and envisioning spaces with a utopian essence—one of the most remarkable examples being West Village, completed in 2015.
The jury of the Pritzker Prize praised Liu Jiakun for his ability to “imagine and construct new worlds, free from aesthetic or stylistic constraints.” This philosophy is vividly expressed in West Village, a project that serves as a prototype for modern urban living—one that could extend beyond China’s borders and find relevance in European cities as well.
West Village, located in Liu Jiakun’s hometown of Chengdu, encapsulates his vision of a utopian city within a city. The five-story residential complex spans an entire urban block, standing in stark contrast to the monotonous high-rises that surround it.
It appears as an enclosed island, yet it remains open through a system of sloping pathways for pedestrians and cyclists that seamlessly integrate with the city’s flow. This design dissolves the rigid boundary between public urban life and private living, making the transition between the two feel organic.
Born in Chengdu in 1956, Liu Jiakun spent much of his childhood wandering the halls of the city’s Second People’s Hospital, where his family of doctors worked. However, instead of following in their footsteps, he explored his passions for literature and drawing before ultimately choosing architecture.
He graduated in 1982 as an architectural engineer and became part of a new wave of architects who emerged during one of China’s most transformative eras. However, he quickly grew disillusioned with an industry that had embraced a rigid, state-prescribed aesthetic.
Had Liu Jiakun chosen to abandon architecture, the field would have lost one of its most visionary figures—one whose influence is essential in understanding the evolution of contemporary Chinese design.
The defining moment in his career came in 1993 when he attended an exhibition by his former university colleague, Tang Hua, at the Shanghai Art Museum. The experience rekindled his passion for architecture, setting him on the path that ultimately led to this momentous recognition.
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