Liu Jiakun receives 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize

Liu Jiakun (Photo courtesy of Qian Shen Photography via www.pritzkerprize.com)

Architect Liu Jiakun of the People’s Republic of China was named the 2025 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize—an award regarded internationally as architecture’s highest honor.

In an announcement on its website, the Pritzker Architecture Prize said Liu’s architecture “celebrates the lives of ordinary citizens. He upholds the transcendent power of the built environment through the harmonizing of cultural, historical, emotional and social dimensions, using architecture to forge community, inspire compassion and elevate the human spirit.”

West Village (Photo courtesy of Qian Shen Photography via www.pritzkerprize.com)

Throughout his works, Liu was said to have demonstrated “a reverence for culture, history and nature, chronicling time and comforting users with familiarity through modern interpretations of classic Chinese architecture.”

“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. 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 sometimes a whole new scenario of daily life. Beyond knowledge and techniques, common sense and wisdom are the most powerful tools he adds to the designer’s toolbox,” said the 2025 Jury Citation, in part.

Museum of Clocks, Jianchuan Museum Cluster (Photo courtesy of Bi Kejian via www.pritzkerprize.com)

The international prize, which is awarded each year to a living architect/s for significant achievement, was established by the Pritzker family of Chicago through their Hyatt Foundation in 1979. It is granted annually and is often referred to as “architecture’s Nobel” and “the profession’s highest honor.”

Source: www.pritzkerprize.com