Memorial de Hu Huishan en Chengdu © Jiakun Architects

A country where private practice of the architectural profession was prohibited until the 1980s can congratulate itself for having already landed two Pritzkers. Like the 2012 winner Wang Shu, Liu Jiakun represents a China much at odds with that of generic megalopolises and imported architectures: one which, without nostalgia, returns to the millenarian tradition to root buildings in their place and for their people. AV 109-110 ‘China Boom’ barely included flashes of his work, so in the heat of his recent distinction Arquitectura Viva offers a run-through of his career through six projects of civic scope that melt into intense spatial and narrative experiences.

As the jury of the award pointed out, more than a style, Liu has developed a strategy that makes no distinctions between programs or between scales, as we can also see from two hors-d’œuvre that precede this selection: the tiny Hu Huishan Memorial, which by taking on the shape, in concrete, of an emergency tent, honors a teen-age girl who perished in the Sichuan earthquake of 2008; and the West Village complex, a scaffolded infrastructure that encircles a huge urban block and fills it with life.