Liu Jiakun Receives the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize
38 comments
·March 10, 2025maxglute
z2
Would you mind sharing those people/firms?
maxglute
Off top of my head: Vector, Atelier FCJZ, Neri&Hu, Atelier Deshaus, Urbanus, Tao+C, crossboundaries, ZAO/standardarchitecture, MAD (don't care for them).
I'm not very good with architect names, but TLDR PRC iterating through their generations of western trained young architects -> domestic trained + western trained -> domestically trained talent pipeline. There's more and more solid work now, especially last 15 years when real money was being thrown at building (and crackdown on western starchitects). Also not saying they're better than Liu persay, but they're good glimpse at new gen portfolios in era where architects not limited to poverty resources. Some of portfolio is still pretty bill paying boring modernism, but every once in a while they'll throw out a nice local "critical regionalism" (i.e. opposite of generic internationalism) project that makes on go, yup that's what a nicely constructed "Chinese" building for xyz region should look like.
pyb
Browsing through the "selected works", some of the photos don't do him justice. There is some interesting stuff but also some drab apartment housing, and even a shed ?
bobthepanda
The shed is a relief tent that is a memorial to an earthquake where they were used.
vonneumannstan
Maoist Apartment blocks and hideous concrete monstrosities win you Architecture Prizes? Wtf is wrong with out society. Complete disdain for actual beauty that can add to human flourishing...
nilstycho
The Pritzker Prize leans modernist. If you prefer classical architecture, check out the Driehaus Prize [1]. The 2025 laureate is Liam O'Connor.
vonneumannstan
Leans might be an understatement. But thanks, some faith has been restored in humanity.
marssaxman
I don't know where you're getting that. I opened the link with a heart full of skepticism, ready to scoff at some hideous, inhumane modern weirdness, but found instead pleasant environments, reasonable choices, and graceful use of practical materials. I doubt I'll ever go to China, but if I did, I can imagine enjoying a visit to some of those places.
donkeybeer
Whats monstrous about it?
These look very nice and livable. https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/liu-jiakun#laureate-...
The first one looks very homely. Good greenery, good sense of shades, cool gray concrete textures. ( https://www.pritzkerprize.com/sites/default/files/styles/max... )
This one doesn't look Maoist to me, looks very like a traditional hut. https://www.pritzkerprize.com/sites/default/files/styles/max...
vonneumannstan
>The first one looks very homely. Good greenery, good sense of shades, cool gray concrete textures. ( https://www.pritzkerprize.com/sites/default/files/styles/max... )
It looks like poorly poured concrete...
>This one doesn't look Maoist to me, looks very like a traditional hut. https://www.pritzkerprize.com/sites/default/files/styles/max...
It looks like a bomb shelter...
https://www.theplan.it/images/stories/gallery91318/design-de...
That is objectively one of the bleakest pictures I have ever seen.
This is supposed to be International Architecture Award Winning Quality?
https://i.insider.com/5d409233100a247279644dd4?width=1000&fo...
Who knew that half the buildings in Mirny, Siberia were considered works of art worthy of International Architecture Prizes lol.
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donkeybeer
The Siberian buildings look much different from the examples you gave. They look like generic rectangular apartment blocks.
Whereas this for example looks not much different from the old European tile roof houses https://www.theplan.it/images/stories/gallery91318/design-de...
donkeybeer
Are you from a country where houses are made of wood?
Brick and concrete is the common house building material in many parts of the world.
foofoo55
They have their beauty as objects of art, but certainly not as a place that I would enjoy occupying or being around. Brutalist architecture with a Chinese flair.
donkeybeer
Most of it doesn't look brutalist to me. See this for example: https://www.pritzkerprize.com/sites/default/files/styles/max...
It looks like a normal house just without paint.
vonneumannstan
I bet you live in SF and find the Tenderloin 'pleasant' and 'not so bad if you don't go out at night or alone' too.
doitLP
Ah, of course: inhuman concrete and strange angles and colors.
My theory with all the high art that the “man in the street” sees as weird or childish garbage is this: if youre a critic or on the inside you’ve seen it all before and dissected it in such detail and tried everything that the only thing that can make you feel anything anymore is electric shocks right to your scrotum while listening to dubstep on the back of a birthing donkey. And so all the movies and art and architecture become just that, and you continue your retreat from the mainstream into your increasingly strange world. Because the fact is, good appealing art has pretty much been discovered but where’s the fun (or profit) in that?
donkeybeer
You are seriously mistaking your personal preference for a universal human trait. Many of these buildings are very homely feeling.
You probably might also come from a country where houses are built of wood. Wood isn't a common building material outside Europe and North America. Concrete and brick are most common.
dr-smooth
Today I learned that in British English, "homely" is a positive trait when referring to a place.
perching_aix
> You are seriously mistaking your personal preference for a universal human trait. Many of these buildings are very homely feeling.
Which you determined how exactly? Or are your tastes universal?
I don't think it's super fruitful to fight opinions with opinions at least.
donkeybeer
By most common factors of homeliness: greenery, shade, cool concrete/stone walls (concrete hatred might even be the minority viewpoint worldwide. Wood is not a common building material outside USA/Canada and Europe). Its not like those large glass walled open plan structures. The interior is secluded and hidden and so on.
iandanforth
Regardless of material, these examples are hideous.
Solid choice, Pritzker loves recognizing blending modernism and regional/vernacular. Pritzker is essentially lifetime achievement prize, have to examine entire body of work. When it comes to "developing" countries like PRC, obviously 50 year career will have some "dud" looking buildings constructed during period where country was poor as fuck. Part of the charm is appreciating how architects negotiate these conditions. Every few years Pritzker will recognize such works, i.e. Shu (china), Doshi (india), Kere (burkina faso), Rocha (brazil), the OG Barragan (mexico). IMO there's "better" Chinese architects pushing modern Chinese architecture, but they're all pretty young studios and won't get their due for decades.