Chinese architect and writer Liu Jiakun has been named as the winner of the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize, becoming the 48th annual laureate of the profession’s most coveted award. Celebrated for his innovative, culturally attuned and distinctly humane approaches to cohabitation and urban density, Liu’s portfolio includes a wealth of cultural projects that put contemporary China into critical, forward-looking dialogue with heritage and history.

Born in Chengdu in 1956, Liu Jiakun graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Architecture from the Institute of Architecture and Engineering in Chongqing (now named Chongqing University) in 1982. Although he hailed from a family of physicians — and spent much of his youth roaming the hospital where his mother worked — he found himself innately drawn to the built environment. “Like a dream, I suddenly realized my own life was important,” says the 68-year-old Liu, recalling his 1978 decision to study architecture.