Words Gabrielle de la Cruz and Jiakun Architects
Information The 2025 Pritzker Prize announcement (Liu Jiakun)
Chinese architect and writer Liu Jiakun believes that the human relationship with nature is reciprocal, reflected in the way he strives to design spaces that encourage communication between the natural and built environment. Spanning museums, academic and commercial buildings, cultural spaces, and urban planning, his body of work was described by the 2025 Pritzker Prize jury as “affirming architecture that celebrates the lives of ordinary citizens.”
Throughout his four-decade architectural career, Jiakun has committed to elevating the lives of locals while celebrating their individual and spiritual identities. He does so by utilizing materials for and by communities, creating modern interpretations of classic Chinese architecture. Below are five selected projects by Jiakun and his practice that garnered the respect of the 2025 Pritzker Prize jury, all of which demonstrate his philosophy that architecture has “the power to shape human behavior and create atmospheres.”
1. West Village, Chengdu, China, 2015
Regarded as Jiakun’s largest work, West Village in Chengdu is a five-story project that houses cycling pathways and pedestrians encouraging cultural and athletic activities. Enveloped within the block are recreational, office, and business spaces, complemented by various sizes of bamboo courtyards that are accessible to the public. Jiakun Architects says these courtyards are meant to recall and continue the traditional leisure lifestyle under the bamboo that locals love.
Given the sloping pathways and the “functional facility-style skeleton design,” building users can enjoy the visual contrast between the mid and high-rise buildings as the backdrop of the village. This creates an experience for the community to see the progress of their built environment, all while being able to enjoy and perform everyday routines. It also aligns with Jiakun’s philosophy of how architecture should reveal something and “abstract, distill, and make visible the inherent qualities of local people,” showcasing how certain communal practices can turn into collective expressions if the design of spaces permits them to. Jiakun Architects shares that the construction of the Xicun Courtyard in West Village has also become “a paradise for leisure life for the people in the surrounding communities,” bringing abundant vitality and huge growth space for itself.
Above: Department of Sculpture, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, photo courtesy of Arch-Exist. Below, left: Image courtesy of Jiakun Architects. Below, right: Image courtesy of Bi Kejian
2. Department of Sculpture, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China 2004
The 9,790 square-meter Department of Sculpture was inserted inside the Huangjueping Campus of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, completed by Jiakun Architects between 2002 to 2004. For this project, the practice had to deal with an irregular and narrow site. The architects’ solution was, as described by the 2025 Pritzker jury, an alternate solution that maximized space, “with upper levels protruding outward to extend the square footage of a narrow footprint.” The building itself follows an obscure shape as the department needed a large number of skylight classrooms, so the roof of the building is projected outward to obtain the largest top-floor area. Meanwhile, the fourth and fifth floors of the building are recessed so that skylights can reach the third-floor classroom below.
Jiakun’s usage and championing of local materials is evident in this work, among others, as he deliberately chose to retain the traces of hand-made cement plastering. According to the firm, this is “a continuation of the mountain sand plastering tradition in Chongqing.” The colors of the exterior were also selected to match those of the institute’s other departments and campuses, underlining how Jiakun evaluates the specific characteristics and requirements of each project differently.
Above: Museum of Clocks, Jianchuan Museum Cluster, photo courtesy of Bi Kejian. Below: Images courtesy of Arch-Exist
3. Clock Museum of the Cultural Revolution, Chengdu, China, 2008
“Writing novels and practicing architecture are distinct forms of art, and I didn’t deliberately seek to combine the two. However, perhaps due to my dual background, there is an inherent connection between them in my work—such as the narrative quality and pursuit of poetry in my designs,” Jiakun said. Arguably the most poetic of his works are the museums he designs, which demonstrate his respect for culture, history, and nature. The 2025 Pritzker jury said that he has a way of “chronicling time and comforting users with familiarity through modern interpretations of classic Chinese architecture.”
Among his works that highlight this is the Clock Museum of the Cultural Revolution or Museum of Clocks. Jiakun Architects said that the design language of this museum follows the relationship between the culture and economy of China. The architects opted to create a chaotic to tranquil experience by designing a bustling exterior that leads to calm and intimate, interior spaces, illustrating the contrast and marriage of China’s current corporate landscape to cultural references from the past.
This project is also a testament to how Jiakun’s “sincerity in the use of materials lets them speak for what they are, as their integrity does not require mediation or maintenance,” as cited by the 2025 Pritzker jury. Using mainly brick and exposed concrete, the project design is proof of how collective memory can be held by materials that are inherent to a place. Built on an abandoned site in the heart of China’s commercial hub, the Museum of Clocks shows the dynamic between the old and the new, revealing how the bond between a community and its culture survives time.
4. The Renovation of Tianbao Cave District, Luzhou, China, 2021
While most of Jiakun’s works tend to bring new life into a place while sticking to its roots, he has also demonstrated how one can reshape the paradigm of public spaces and community life. One of his recently completed works is the Renovation of Tianbao Cave District in Luzhou, China, which is located along the cliffs that house Tianbao Cave, Dibao Cave, and Renhe Cave, which together form the world’s largest natural cave system for aging Langjiu liquor. Jiakun Architects said the site was previously part of a Langjiu production area, but the buildings had to be demolished and rebuilt due to deterioration.
Following the traditional Chinese architectural elements of pavilions, the primary areas of a structure were built with béton brut and locally sourced stone. This creates an aesthetic that blends with the surrounding photography, reminiscent of how Jiakun “aspires to be like water,” without a “fixed form” and seeping into “the local environment and the site itself.” The architects said that they connected and organized the scattered hillside structures into a continuous circular flow, with the houses tucked in the natural slope.
Above the base structures are “cantilevered weathering steel structures in a vibrant orange-red hue that evoke the imagery of pavilions and terraces, appearing light and soaring—conveying a classical Eastern vision of dwelling amidst mountains and water”, Jiakun Architects noted. The architectural ensemble intertwines solidity and weightlessness, two contrasting qualities that are embedded within the landscape and distinct from it.
Suzhou Museum of Imperial Kiln Brick, images courtesy of Jiakun Architects
5. Suzhou Imperial Kiln Brick Museum, Suzhou, China 2016
Located at Suzhou Imperial Kiln Ruins Park in Xiangcheng District, Suzhou, China, the Suzhou Imperial Kiln Brick Museum is a 15,326 square-meter project that aims to aid in the preservation of cultural artifacts such as jin zhuan or gold bricks and the imperial kiln ruins themselves. The task of the architects was to orchestrate architectural organization and landscape design that would showcase the refining process of jin zhuan while conveying their historical and cultural significance.
Jiakun Architects wrote: The layout adopts a surrounding enclosure strategy, creating an inward-facing, Chinese-garden-like space that maximizes the core preservation area. A tree-lined pathway is set along the northern bridge to isolate noise and enhance the atmosphere, while the building’s height helps shield the southern residential area. Inside, the arrangement of production houses and kiln clusters is used to guide sightlines, with a winding circulation design that offers a sense of seclusion, revealing changing scenery with every step.
The complex of the museum was also constructed using a variety of bricks that were arranged in layered progression to highlight the jin zhuan, a mechanism done not only to address the physical and spatial needs of the museum but also to perform a chronological narrative of brickmaking from ancient times to the present. Embodying both the essence of a kiln and the grandeur of a palace, the museum reflects the spiritual significance of the imperial kiln, reminding there is value in looking back and remembering. •
