Chinese architect Liu Jiakun, who has designed a wide range of projects in and around his home city of Chengdu, is this year’s winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the industry’s highest international honor.
It is the second consecutive year the architecture honor went to an Asian architect, and Liu’s selection continued a focus in recent years on designs used by everyday citizens, such as museums, public buildings and other civic projects.
Liu was chosen for celebrating everyday lives and upholding “the transcendent power of the building environment through the harmonization of cultural, historical, emotional and social dimensions, using architecture to forge community, inspire compassion and elevate the human spirit,” according to the announcement of the award Tuesday.
“Through an outstanding body of work of deep coherence and constant quality, Liu Jiakun imagines and constructs new worlds, free from any aesthetic or stylistic constraint,” the jury citation said. “Instead of a style, he has developed a strategy that never relies on a recurring method but rather on evaluating the specific characteristics and requirements of each project differently. That is to say, Liu Jiakun takes present realities and handles them to the point of offering a whole new scenario of daily life. Beyond knowledge and technique, he adds common sense and wisdom to the designer’s toolbox.”
The 68-year-old’s projects include West Village, a five-story, blockwide complex of residential, office, athletic and recreational space. The design, which includes a courtyard with sports fields surrounded by winding ramps for pedestrians and cyclists, stands out despite being surrounded by taller structures.
He has designed spaces for the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Suzhou Museum of Imperial Kiln Brick, Lancui Pavilion of Egret Gulf Wetland, Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Art Museum, Shuijingfang Museum and the Museum of Clocks within the Jianchuan Museum Cluster.
Liu also designed a Shanghai campus for Swiss pharmaceutical campus Novartis, which features tiered balconies.
“I always aspire to be like water — to permeate through a place without carrying a fixed form of my own and to seep into the local environment and the site itself,” Liu said in a statement. “Over time, the water gradually solidifies, transforming into architecture, and perhaps even into the highest form of human spiritual creation. Yet, it still retains all the qualities of that place, both good and bad.”
The award is sponsored by the Chicago-based Hyatt Foundation. The award was founded in 1979 by the late Hyatt Hotels founder Jay Pritzker and his wife, Cindy.
Liu, who was born in Chengdu in 1956, is the 54th winner of the award.
“Liu Jiakun uplifts through the process and purpose of architecture, fostering emotional connections that unite communities,” Tom Pritzker, chairman of the foundation, said in a statement announcing the winner. “There is a wisdom in his architecture, philosophically looking beyond the surface to reveal that history, materials and nature are symbiotic.”
Last year’s Pritzker Prize winner was Riken Yamamoto, a Japanese architect known for bringing together public and private spaces.
Previous winners have included Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, I.M. Pei, Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster. The first winner was Philip Johnson.
Liu will be honored at a celebration at Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in the spring and via a virtual video ceremony in the fall.