The Pritzker Architecture Prize ceremony was hosted at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, honouring Chinese architect Liu Jiakun as the 2025 Laureate -- a historic first for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Middle East -- and brought together prominent figures from the global architecture community, including several past Pritzker Prize recipients.
The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, attended the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize ceremony held on Saturday.
The event coincided with a public panel discussion at the Cultural Foundation, led by Liu Jiakun, the 2025 Pritzker Prize Laureate. He will be joined by fellow Laureates Riken Yamamoto (2024), David Chipperfield (2023) and Francis Kéré (2022).
Together, these leading voices explored the role of architecture in celebrating cultural expression reflected in their own practices and the future of the built environment.
Transformative projects
Liu Jiakun is the 54th Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and resides in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China.
The 2025 Jury Citation states, in part, “In a global context where architecture is struggling to find adequate responses to fast evolving social and environmental challenges, Liu Jiakun has provided convincing answers that also celebrate the everyday lives of people as well as their communal and spiritual identities…Through transformative projects like the West Village in Chengdu, he reshapes the paradigm of public spaces and of community life. He invents new independent, shared ways of living together in which density does not represent the opposite of an open system.”
“In my life, architecture is not necessarily a tool for fame or fortune, but is the guidance for me to touch the spiritual height and the depth of my soul,” explains Jiakun. “It resembles my love for literature. They both require lifelong devotion, but the unexpected gains are the motives and inspirations for progress. In parallel universes or cycles of time, wherever I am, I’m myself and resolute. If the stage is not bright enough, I refine myself to shine; if I can’t reach the edge of the sky or sea, I dig deep.”
“Liu Jiakun is rooted in one of the most historically significant cities in the world, and at the same time, an architect deeply committed to everyday communities. His architecture integrates local tradition into the world, forging connections and fostering harmony that gives his work a strong presence and pertinence,” shares last year’s Laureate Riken Yamamoto.
As the world’s most esteemed recognition in the field of architecture, the Pritzker Architecture Prize honours living architects whose work demonstrates a combination of talent, vision, and commitment. Their contributions must show consistent and significant impact on humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.
