At 17, Liu Jiacun was despatched to work within the countryside as a part of China’s “re -education” efforts in the course of the Cultural Revolution.
“I didn’t see a transparent future for me – many issues have been fairly pointless,” Liu stated by way of a translator (his son Martin) in a current phone interview from his workplace in Chendu, China. “At the moment, I assumed life was insignificant.”
Ultimately, Liu, now at 68, discovered which means in structure, a pursuit that gained him the very best honor of the career: the Prize Pritzker.
Creating his personal follow, Jiakun Architects, in his native Chendu in 1999, LIU constructed greater than 30 initiatives in China – together with tutorial buildings, cultural establishments and civil areas. He additionally designs the introductory serpentine pavilion Beijing in 2018 and is introduced in Venice Bienale.
His work shouldn’t be intrusive or filled with bloom. As a substitute, stated the architect, he goals to honor the prevailing circumstances, to make use of native supplies which are “common, trendy, low cost and native” and to raise the human spirit.
“By distinctive work of working with deep consistency and fixed high quality, Liu Jiacun imagines and constructs new worlds free from any aesthetic or stylistic restrictions,” the jury stated in his quote, asserting the award on Tuesday. “As a substitute of favor, he has developed a technique that by no means relys on a repetitive technique, however moderately a extra analysis of the particular traits and necessities of every mission in a different way. That’s, Liu Jiacun takes the current realities and processes them to the extent of providing a totally new situation from on a regular basis life. “
Its so -called rebirth brick is made up of the ruins of the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, combined with wheat stems and cement.
He constructed a easy, touching tribute to a 15-year-old lady, misplaced on this earthquake, beneath the collapsed second college in Baschuan: “Hu Huisan Memorial“On the premise of Jianchuan Museum Cluster in Chendu. The construction resembles a tent for reduction, and inside, the pink partitions have a few of its belongings – a backpack, a fringe scarf.
“It is a option to consolation your mother and father,” Liu stated. “The memorial expresses private emotion, however it’s also a collective reminiscence.”
Even the most important LIU public initiatives are additionally modest. His “West Village” for 2015 in Chendu, a posh of a courtyard of cultural, athletic, leisure, workplace and enterprise actions, elevates 5 tales and wraps across the total block, though it’s visually diminished and low-tech not like the upper buildings of the neighborhood. The perimeter is open, however nonetheless closed, with paths for cyclists and pedestrians, enveloping a mini village and offering views of the setting.
With herbs drilling by holes within the bricks and native bamboo groves, offering areas of shade, the mission celebrates “the vitality of” on a regular basis ” wrote A critic in 2017, “which he sees as” primary content material and first pleasure in human life. “
Liu’s Luyeyan Museum of Stone Sculpture (ChengDu, 2002), Home of a personal assortment of Buddhist figures and relics, is modeled after a standard Chinese language backyard, together with water and historic stones, in addition to handbook efficiency of sand sands. His renewal From the Tianbao Cave within the metropolis of Erlang (Luzhou, China, 2021), consisting of a number of alcohol storage caves, is nestled on the luxurious rock of Tianbao Mountain.
“In a world that tends to create infinite dumb peripherals, it has discovered a option to construct locations which are a constructing, infrastructure, panorama and public house on the identical time,” stated Alejandro Aravena, chairman of the pritker jury. “His work can provide impactful clues about how you can face the challenges of urbanization.”
Born in Chenddu in 1956, Liu says he was interested in structure as a result of he likes “drawing images”. He graduated from the then Institute of Structure and Engineering in Chongking in 1982 and started working for the State Institute for Architectural and Analysis Institute for Design and Analysis.
In 1984, he voluntarily moved to Nagk, Tibet – among the many highest areas of the earth – as a result of “my primary energy of time appeared concern of nothing and as well as, my drawing and writing expertise,” he says in statements supplied by Pritzker.
Throughout this time, Liu was an architect in the course of the day and the creator at evening, nearly abandoning his profession to jot down. In 1993, he visited the solo architectural exhibition of former classmate Tang Hua on the Shanghai Museum of Arts. He realized that “he might even have a private expression by structure,” he stated in an interview, which “permits me to get into folks’s lives and to grasp this extra.”
Liho quietly weaves his buildings of their setting. His Shuijingfang Museum (2013), which focuses on the historical past of Chinese language alcohol Baijiu, has retained the 600-year-old distilleries and the size of the encompassing residences at a low degree. His Clock museum – Comprises a collection of watches that imply the top of the cultural revolution – contains a big round construction pierced by mild mild and an inside strip of images.
For the 2015 Venice Biennale – “With Wind 2015 – that is your name” – Liu created an arcade shaped by fishing rods filed in a base by tough logs.
“I wished my structure to exist with nature and in addition be capable to categorical the traits of the native setting,” he stated within the interview. “I would like my structure to be public and in addition to enhance folks’s lives.”
