Liu Jiakun, Chinese architect and founder of Jiakun Architects since 1999, is the 54th winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest international recognition in the field of architecture.

Speaking to CNN ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, the founder of one of China’s first private architecture firms reflects on a career designing unpretentious buildings in an era of excess.

Pritzker Prize has been awarded this year to Chinese Architect Liu Jiakun. Born in Chengdu in 1956, he grew up in the densifying city, before attending and graduating from the Chongqing Architecture and Engineering College ( Chongqing University) in 1982 with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Architecture,