At the tender age of 17, Liu Jiakun was dispatched to labor in the countryside, a victim of China's "re-education" initiative during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution. Speaking through his son, Martin, as an interpreter during a recent telephone conversation from his Chengdu office, Liu reminisced, "The future seemed uncertain and bleak; many endeavors appeared devoid of purpose." He confessed, "In those days, I perceived life as insignificant."
Now, at 68, Liu has discovered the profound significance in architecture, a passion that has culminated in his receipt of the profession's esteemed Pritzker Prize. In 1999, he founded Jiakun Architects in his hometown of Chengdu, where he has since designed over 30 projects across China, encompassing academic edifices, cultural institutions, and civic spaces. His portfolio also boasts the inaugural Serpentine Pavilion Beijing in 2018 and showcased works at the Venice Biennales.
Liu's architecture eschews grandeur and excessive embellishments. As an architect, he aspires to honor existing contexts, employ "regular, contemporary, inexpensive, and local" materials, and elevate the human spirit. The prize jury, announcing the award on Tuesday, remarked, "Through an exemplary collection of works displaying profound coherence and consistent excellence, Liu Jiakun envisions and constructs new worlds, unshackled by aesthetic or stylistic confines. Rather than adhering to a particular style, he has devised a strategy that evaluates the unique attributes and demands of each project distinctly. In essence, Liu Jiakun takes present realities and masterfully transforms them, presenting an entirely novel daily life scenario."
His innovative "rebirth brick" is a testament to resilience, crafted from the rubble of the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake, blended with wheat stalks and cement. He created a poignant and unassuming tribute to a 15-year-old girl who perished in the earthquake beneath the collapsed Beichuan Middle School: the "Memorial to Hu Huishan," situated within the Jianchuan Museum Cluster in Chengdu. The structure mimics a relief tent, with pink walls displaying some of her personal effects—a backpack, a fringed scarf. Liu explained, "It offers solace to her parents. The memorial conveys personal grief but also serves as a collective memory."
Even Liu's largest public projects maintain a humble demeanor. His 2015 "West Village" in Chengdu is a five-story courtyard complex encompassing cultural, athletic, recreational, office, and business activities, wrapping around an entire block. Despite its impressive scale, it contrasts with the neighboring taller structures through its visually subdued and low-tech aesthetics. The perimeter is open yet enclosed, with pathways accommodating cyclists and pedestrians, embracing a mini village and offering breathtaking views of the surrounding environment.
With grasses sprouting through the crevices in the bricks and indigenous bamboo groves casting cool shades, the project exalts "the pulsating vitality of the mundane," penned a critic in 2017, "which he perceives as 'the quintessence and ultimate joy of human existence'." Liu's Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Art Museum (Chengdu, 2002), a sanctuary housing a private trove of Buddhist statues and relics, mimics a classic Chinese garden, complete with serene waters, ancient stones, and artfully crafted rough-hewn plasterwork. His renovation of the Tianbao Cave District in Erlang Town (Luzhou, China, 2021), comprising several liquor-storage caves, is nestled amidst the verdant cliffside of Mount Tianbao.
"In a realm that often churns out endless, mundane peripheries, he has devised a means to create spaces that are simultaneously structures, infrastructures, landscapes, and public domains," Alejandro Aravena, chairman of the Pritzker jury, articulated in a statement. "His endeavors may provide profound insights into tackling the intricacies of urbanization."
Born in Chengdu in 1956, Liu confesses that architecture beckoned him due to his fondness for "sketching visions." He graduated from what was then known as the Chongqing Institute of Architecture and Engineering in 1982 and embarked on his professional journey at the state-owned Chengdu Architectural Design and Research Institute.
In 1984, I was fueled by an unyielding spirit of fearlessness and my proficiency in both painting and writing.Liu voluntarily uprooted to Nagqu, Tibet – one of Earth's highest regions. During this period, he was an architect by day and an author by night, almost abandoning his architectural career for literature. In 1993, at a solo architectural exhibition of his former classmate, Tang Hua, at the Shanghai Art Museum, Liu realized that he could "impart personal expressions through architecture," he recounted in an interview, "which enables me to delve into people's lives and gain a profounder understanding of it."
Liu seamlessly integrates his structures into their surroundings. His Shuijingfang Museum (2013), dedicated to the history of Chinese baijiu liquor, preserves the 600-year-old distillery site and the scale of the neighboring low-rise habitations. His Museum of Clocks, showcasing a series of clocks marking the cessation of the Cultural Revolution, boasts a cavernous circular structure pierced by a skylight and adorned with an interior frieze of photographs.
For the 2015 Venice Biennale titled "With the Wind 2015 – It’s Your Call," Liu created an arcade formed by fishing rods embedded into a base of rugged logs. "I aspire for my architecture to coexist harmoniously with nature while expressing the unique characteristics of the locale," he expressed in the interview. "I yearn for my creations to be public spaces that enhance people's lives."
