Liu Jiakun wins the Pritzker Prize, the 'Nobel' of architecture

BarcelonaWhen a devastating earthquake struck the Chinese region of Sichuan in May 2008, architect Liu Jiakun (Chengdu, 1956) went there to support and assist the victims. He met a family who had lost a 15-year-old daughter. After hearing their story, he offered to design a public memorial called the Memorial for Hu Huishan using bricks taken from the ruins. He turned a tragic place into a place of contemplation. For this vindication of the common and traditional techniques, and also for the emotional and memorial charge of his building, Liu Jiakun was awarded the Pritzker Prize on Tuesday, the 1997 Pritzker Prize for the Study of the Living World. Nobel of architecture. “Valuing ordinary lives will be the foundation of our nation’s renaissance,” Liu Jiakun said in one of his most famous quotes.

Liu Jiakun’s best-known works include the Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Museum (2002), the Cultural Revolution Clock and Watch Museum (2004), the Museum of Contemporary Art (2010), and the West Village Courtyard, a four-story building in Chengdu, China, in Beijing (2018).

According to the Prtizker Prize jury, “Through an exceptional body of work of great coherence and quality, Liu Jiakun imagines and constructs new worlds, free from aesthetic or stylistic limitations.” "Instead of a style, he has developed a strategy that is never based on a recurring method, but on evaluating the specific characteristics and requirements of each project differently," the jury continues. "In other words, Liu Jiakun takes current realities and manipulates them to the point of sometimes offering a new scenario of everyday life, the most mundane of all. He adds them to the designer's toolbox."

Writer before architect

Liu Jiakun is the third Chinese architect to receive the Pritzker, after I.M. Pei (1983) and Wang Shu (2012). According to Jiakun, there were times when the idea of pursuing architecture was wavering, but his interest was rekindled as he devoted himself to meditation, painting and writing. He graduated from the Chongqing Institute of Architecture and Engineering in 1982 and worked for two years at the Chengdu Academy of Architectural Design, which discouraged him from continuing his career as an architect. So he went to live in Tibet, Xinjiang and western China, where he meditated, painted and wrote fiction for about ten years. In fact, he had planned to become a writer. Jiakun regained interest in architecture in 1993, when he visited a colleague's exhibition. He opened his own studio in 1999. “There are many issues that concern me such as the juxtaposition of utopia and everyday life, modernity and traditions, collective and individual memory, as well as sustainability,” Jiakun says.

Despite his reflection on modernity and tradition, Jiakun has explained that he does not want to be tied to a single “architectural gesture” and that he uses different techniques depending on the project. He also believes that buildings reflect a particular moment, so he acknowledges that he may regret aspects of his work, and admits to imperfections. “I like buildings that can have alternative readings. I don’t like architecture that aims to be perfect. In other words, imperfect buildings could be seen as good architecture. I can accept imperfections because it is a striving for perfection that leads to rigidity,” Jiakun says.

Alejandro Aravena, Pritzker Prize winner in 2016 and president of the jury for the 2025 edition, explains that in a world where "cities tend to segregate functions, Liu Jiakun takes the opposite approach and maintains a delicate balance to integrate all dimensions of urban life." "In a world that tends to create endless boring peripheries, he has found a way to build places that are buildings, infrastructure, landscape and public space at the same time. His work can offer striking clues on how to face the challenges of urbanization, in an era of fast-growing cities," concludes Aravena.