A gallery of architectural artistry defines the unique vision of Liu Jiakun

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Liu Jiakun's works reflect his view of the importance of community, people and heritage.

His structures, from a lifestyle center and office buildings to museums, are found mostly in his home province of Sichuan, in the neighboring city of Chongqing and in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Many of his works are rooted in sites of disused factories, old towns and historical venues, preserving their cultural importance in the rejuvenation process.

Follow Shanghai Daily to see how Liu gives a special life to special places.

West Village

Chengdu, Sichuan Province

In a departure from the traditional, centralized model for urban redevelopment complexes, West Village, also known as Xicun Courtyard, is laid out something like a public park in Chengdu.

Buildings are arranged along the perimeter of the site, enclosing an open core.

The structural framework provides functional facilities while allowing everyday life to fill the space organically.

"I pay more attention to people's feelings, such as how they enter and move through a space, which offers me a line of thought," said Liu. "The West Village is a megastructure, and when designing buildings there, the first thing I had to consider was what it could bring to the residents nearby."

The immense scale of the courtyard unifies these elements, resulting in a "market facade" that expresses the richness of communal life. An elevated leisure track loops around the courtyard, ascends and then encircles the rooftop, offering runners and cyclists an exhilarating experience while infusing the architecture with dynamic energy.

Novartis Shanghai Campus-C6

Pudong New Area, Shanghai

Each building in the Novartis Shanghai Campus, the Shanghai office complex of the Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG, was designed by different architects, including Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2016, and Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.

Liu designed the C6 building, blending architecture with landscape. Central courtyards, a series of small atria and vertical green courtyards with natural light are interspersed within open office spaces, allowing for a seamless interaction between people and the landscape.

The open space of the building's interior has scattered private areas for personal meetings. Recycled bricks and bamboo scrimber are used both on the façade and for the interior, making the entire building eco-friendly.

Hangzhou Grand Canal Steelworks Park, Phase 1

Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province

In 1957, Hangzhou Steelworks, the first modern steel plant in Zhejiang Province, was built along the ancient Grand Canal. In 2020, the city of Hangzhou repurposed the then-disused site as a comprehensive urban complex.

In Liu's vision, the makeover "honors the history of Hangzhou Steelworks, protects the traces of time, humbly complements its heritage and creates a garden amidst nature."

To break from the standard look of steel mills, Liu chose to build a garden into the site.

New buildings around the old plant, along with the garden, soften the mass of the complex, giving it somewhat the look of a solemn museum: The old steelworks serve as the "exhibits" while the new, add-on architecture forms the showcase pedestal.

The project won the World Landscape Architecture Awards last year.

Hu Huishan Memorial Museum

Chengdu, Sichuan Province

Dedicated to Hu Huishan, a junior high school student who was among the 69,000 people killed in the massive 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the museum is the smallest creation of Liu's career.

Liu met Hu's parents after the earthquake and was moved by their love for their daughter and the grief of her loss. That inspired him to build a memorial museum.

The simple brick structure in a forest setting is shaped like a tent, with the interior painted pink – Hu's favorite color.

Many of her daily life articles are placed there, surrounded by pictures of her on the wall. Sunlight shines in from a round-shaped hollow in the ceiling, creating a bright, and cozy little space.

"I hoped to achieve a state of non-self for this museum, so that all the expression and focus would be on Hu Huishan," said Liu. "The earthquake happened in Sichuan, and I'm from Sichuan, so I felt a deep connection."

Shuijingfang Museum

Chengdu, Sichuan Province

Shuijingfang is a brand of local Sichuan liquor with a history of about six centuries. The museum, which was finished in 2013, is based on one of the earliest Shuijingfang workshops.

The design not only protects the original workshop and its fermentation pits but also adds a circle of new plants around it for the modernized production of the liquor.

"It is a living museum," Liu said. "It allows visitors to experience the entire process of Shuijingfang liquor without interfering with production."

This was the first urban redevelopment building that utilized "rebirth bricks," which Liu developed soon after the Wenchuan earthquake. The bricks were made from quake rubble and were first used as a material to build quick shelters for displaced survivors.

In Shuijingfang Museum, they resonate with the old blue bricks in color and shape.

"The entire area where the museum is located is a protected zone, so its construction needed to be in harmony with the zone in terms of height, style of sloping roofs and color tone," Liu said. "However, we don't imitate antiquity, because imitation will portray the unreal as real and cause a loss of aesthetic integrity."

Renovation of Tianbao Cave District in Erlang Town

Luzhou, Sichuan Province

The Tianbao Cave District is located on a cliffside of Tianbao Peak, comprising three large caves that originally served as a production site of the century-old Langjiu liquor.

The old derelict buildings were demolished, replaced by new ones to serve as a resort and museum for liquor lovers.

Liu said that this project is very different from the Shuijingfang one, despite that they both focus on ancient liquors, mainly because of their respective locations.

"Due to the cliff terrain of the cave district, I adopted the concept of Chinese classical pavilions, terraces and pagodas," he said. "Although the museum occupies a considerable area, it appears as small pavilions and corridors on the mountain side, just like a scene from ancient Chinese paintings."

This concept of the architecture is also extracted from the traditional Chinese ideal of living: "Not to conquer nature but to adapt to it."

Liu said, "It is a state of nature and mankind being inseparable. The two should have an integrated and symbiotic relationship."