Liu Jiakun Bestowed with 2025 Pritzker Prize at the Louvre Abu Dhabi
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“Architecture is closely intertwined with the fate of humanity—it will evolve and renew itself, as it has always been doing. So long as humanity does not perish, architecture will not either.”
The above is just one of several affective, introspective snippets from an acceptance speech given by Chinese architect Liu Jiakun, the 54th laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, at a ceremony held on the Presidential Steps of the Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi on the evening of May 5. The 2025 Pritzker Prize ceremony marked the first time that the invitation-only event has been held in the United Arab Emirates and the second time it has been hosted in the Middle East, following the Rem Koolhaas–honoring 2000 ceremony held at Jerusalem Archeological Park. (Recent ceremonies have been held in Chicago, Athens, and virtually during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.)
Liu at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Photo courtesy Tom Walsh, The Hyatt Foundation/Pritzker Architecture Prize
Based in the Sichuan capital city of Chengdu, Liu, who spoke with RECORD earlier this year on topics ranging from the influence of literature on his work to the role of memory in design, is the second China-based architect to receive the prestigious honor. (Sichaun, remarked Liu, is famous for its “giant pandas, spicy delicacies, as well as laid-back attitude and inclusive culture.”) Hangzhou-based Wang Shu was awarded the prize in 2012 and was present at the ceremony in Abu Dhabi, joined by several other past Pritzker laureates including Riken Yamamoto (2024), David Chipperfield (2023), Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal (2021), Alejandro Aravena (2016), Kazuyo Sejima (2010), and Nouvel (2008). Also in attendance were a slew of UAE royals, multiple ambassadors and dignitaries, and the 2025 Pritzker Prize jury: Barry Bergdoll, Deborah Berke, André Corrêa do Lago, Hashim Sarkis, Lacaton, Sejima, and chair Aravena.
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Pritzker Architecture Prize executive director Manuela Lucá-Dazio addresses the audience (1); Liu gives his acceptance speech (2). Photos courtesy The Hyatt Foundation/Pritzker Architecture Prize
Liu began his speech by thanking his friends and family, colleagues and clients, and the prize jury. (There was also a special shoutout to the three cats residing in his studio.) “I was just having a headache when you called, after I put down the phone, the pain was gone,” he said of first receiving the news that he had been named the latest Pritzker laureate. “Architecture awards obviously have a magical healing effect on architects—buildings should have the same effect on their users, I suppose,” he added.
He went on to address numerous themes, including spirituality, local tradition, the natural world, and style, which he referred to as a “double-edged sword” that is “beneficial for being recognized but can also become [a] limitation.”
“On some sleepless nights, I would suddenly realize how lucky I was to be involved in architecture, and how close I was to once giving it up,” Liu concluded. “When I questioned what architecture can provide, it indeed has brought me some return. When I asked what I could give to architecture, then I have gained much more. Sometimes, it has even helped me to overcome nothingness.”
