For Pritzker prize winner, each project is a love letter to homeland

CHENGDU — When asked about his favorite architectural form, Liu Jiakun, the newly crowned Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate, did not mention soaring skyscrapers or grand monuments, but said, "Wells".

"In a well, time loops and parallel universes exist. Wherever you are, you are both inside and outside yourself. If the stage is dark, you cultivate your own light and if the sky isn't vast, you dig deep," he tells Xinhua in an interview in Chengdu, Sichuan province, where he was born.

For over four decades, Liu has remained rooted in his homeland, proving that a deeply local practice can grow into something towering and universal.