ChinaCultureConnect - Exclusive: Liu Jiakun's speech on winning the Pritzker Prize: Protecting the original perception

The 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize award ceremony was held at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, UAE on May 5. Chinese architect Liu Jiakun was awarded the award, becoming the 54th winner since the establishment of the award and the second Chinese architect to receive this honor. Thomas Pritzker, chairman of the organizer Hyatt Foundation, presented the medal to Liu Jiakun and said that Liu Jiakun "uses architecture to unite the community, inspire humanistic care, and sublimate the human spirit." The Pritzker Architecture Prize was established in 1979 and is the highest international award in the field of architecture.

"'Coexistence with nature' is the ancient wisdom of Chinese civilization. Architecture needs to find a balance between 'nature' and 'construction.' The most touching thing about architecture is its elephant-like clumsiness and sensitivity. Architecture needs to protect its original perception while pursuing innovation," said Liu Jiakun in his speech at the award ceremony.

The following is the full text of Liu Jiakun’s speech, which The Paper is authorized to exclusively publish:

Liu Jiakun delivers a speech at the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize Award Ceremony. Image courtesy of the Pritzker Architecture Prize

Hello everyone!

I’m Liu Jiakun, and I’m from Chengdu, Sichuan. Sichuan is located in a basin in the western inland of China, close to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and is home to pandas, spicy food, leisure, and tolerance.

Thank you to the jury! Your recognition is a great encouragement to me. My intuitive work has become clear after your summary, and your comments are like a kindred spirit.

Thank you, Pritzker family - Cindy, I'm sure you can hear me - thank you for your love, perseverance and generosity for architecture. I remember Mr. Tom Pritzker's comment, "philosophically beyond the surface", and I will remember it, and I want to go beyond it.

Thanks to my clients, without your trust, support and even risk-taking, many buildings would not be possible.

Thanks to my colleagues, we worked hard together to finish the design. "This matter is not urgent, but it must be done quickly", this kind of words will be said more in the future.

Thank you my friends, you keep me grounded in my daily life and I draw so much nourishment from you.

I would like to thank my family for their support. I would like to especially thank Martin Liu for his hard work during this period. I hope you will write good music in the future. “Music is a flowing architecture.”

Thanks to the three cats in the studio, it’s so cool to pet cats. Their bodies are irreplaceable.

Thank you Ms. Maninula and Ms. Daniela! You are the messengers of good news. I had a headache when you called me, and when I hung up the phone, I found that my headache was gone!

Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Art Museum, Photo by Bi Kejian

Architecture awards have a clear therapeutic effect on architects, and I think buildings should have the same effect on their users.

Architecture, maybe?

The importance of a cause can be measured by the materials it uses: politics uses the fate of the country as its material, economics uses the circulation of wealth as its material, and culture, art, technology, religion...

What about architecture? Architecture uses bricks, stones, and earth as materials - this may sound a bit awkward, as these are all matter - but matter was created at the beginning of the world and is older than all of the above. Almost all matter on the earth has been infiltrated by organic life, and all things have spirits. Architecture uses matter as its material, solidifying all of the above and presenting it to the world. When a building is completed, it is no longer a metaphor for something, but directly , becoming existence itself. Architecture is about manipulating matter until it exudes spirit. Architecture creates something out of nothing and participates in creation, which is originally the work of God.

Hu Huishan Memorial Hall, © Jiakun Architecture

Architecture is complex: comprehensive thinking, concise presentation; relying on data and relying on intuition. Architecture is "non-linguistic" and not so easy to calculate - AI can also listen to it by the way:

"Coexistence with nature" is the ancient wisdom of Chinese civilization. For ant nests, grasslands are nature; for villagers, ant nests and grasslands are nature; for cities, villages, ant nests and grasslands are nature... Cities are "ant nests" built by humans for themselves, and they do not necessarily have to be in opposition to nature. "Nature" and "construction" are in a relationship of contradiction and balance, and everything depends on human efforts.

Recycled bricks, © Jiakun Architecture

Every place is local to the locals. If the place has no depth, the so-called international is nothing. No matter where it is, architecture always has to be located in a specific place. "Adapting measures to local conditions" is a methodology that can be used in different places.

Tradition embodies the spiritual illusion and self-identity of a group. The core of tradition is not the style of the past, but the worldview that continues to this day. We live in the present.

Xicun Courtyard, Photographed by: Qianshen Photography

Utopia and worldly life are two ends of a seesaw. Revolution is easy but it is hard to know the limits.

“What does the brick want to be?” We can also ask the project what it wants to be, just like Louis Kahn asked the brick. Focusing on the object, the essence takes shape. Abandoning the ego may mobilize greater power. Including others in order can form harmony.

Style is a double-edged sword, which is easy to be recognized but also easy to limit oneself. A unified methodology can make different works have a common temperament. Recognizability should be the artistic personality conveyed by a series of works.

Shuijing Street Winery Ruins Museum, Photo: Existing Architecture

Suzhou Imperial Kiln Gold Brick Museum, Photo by Yao Li

The most moving thing about architecture is its elephant-like clumsiness and sensitivity. Delicacy is only one of countless standards. The road to perfection also leads to the inhuman. "Unfinished feeling" is not "unfinished", but an inducement to growth. Materials and construction methods are not new or old, but it depends on where they are used. Roughness can hang on time. Architecture needs to protect the original perception in the pursuit of innovation.

Novartis Shanghai Campus C6 Building Photography: Existing Architecture

Wenli Songyang Three Temples Cultural Exchange Center, Photo: Existence Architecture

Will the work we love be replaced? No. Architecture and human destiny are closely intertwined. As long as human beings do not perish, architecture will not perish either. Architecture will evolve and be renewed. Architecture has always been doing so. On some sleepless nights, I would think that I was really lucky to be able to devote myself to architecture, and I almost gave up architecture. When I think about what architecture can bring to me, it will indeed give back; and when I think about what I can bring to architecture, I really get more, and sometimes even overcome nothingness.

Architecture is on top. Thank you architecture!