43 h. ago
‘I aspire to be like water’: the exquisite buildings of Liu Jiakun, winner of architecture’s top prize
He turns steelworks into parks and makes ‘rebirth bricks’ from earthquake rubble. As the novelist, meditator and ‘accidental architect’ wins the Pritzker prize, we look at the masterful temples, caves and public spaces of this one-man antidote to Chinese bombastPensioners take their evening stroll on an elevated walkway, surrounded by lush thickets of bamboo, as a game of five-a-side football kicks off on a sunken pitch below. Around them, forming a huge C-shaped courtyard, rises a five-storey stack of streets in the sky, where signs advertise everything from yoga and dance studios to skincare clinics, barbecue restaurants and computer programming classes for kids. A long, sloping ramp connects the different levels, knitting the structure together in a zigzag promenade that culminates on the roof, framing views out over the sprawling Chinese megacity of Chengdu. This multi-levelled landscape of leisure, culture and commerce, known as West Village, is the work of architect Liu Jiakun...