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Design Building Wins International Accolade | A Home for Jiaotong People, World-Class Beauty

On the evening of December 4, local time in Paris, France, the 2025 Prix Versailles awards ceremony took place at UNESCO headquarters. The Shanghai Jiao Tong University Design Building, designed by Professor Xing Ruan, Dean of the School of Design, and his team, stood out in this year's competition. It became the only Asian campus architecture to be listed among the “World's Most Beautiful Campuses.” With its outstanding architectural design and spatial creation, earning the Special Prize for an Interior—one of the three major awards of the Prix Versailles. It also became the first Chinese university campus building to receive any of the three major awards in this category since the prize's inception.

Yu Chaoyang, Member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Head of the Publicity Department at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, along with Xing Ruan—architect of the Design Building, Dean of the School of Design, and Kuang-Chi Chair Professor—were invited to attend the ceremony and accepted the award on stage. In his acceptance speech, Ruan Xin expressed sincere gratitude on behalf of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the design team for this honor. He stated: Representing the design team and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, we are grateful for this wonderful acknowledgement. I must say, the title of the most beautiful campus building is very useful for student recruitment. On a more serious note, we salute the award organization for the courage to single out beauty in this troubling world that we are living in. Beauty is much needed, for it is the outcome of both ethics and esthetics.

In her opening remarks at the awards ceremony, Irina Bokova, Chair of the Jury, stated:

The PRIX VERSAILLES challenges us to look beyond aesthetics and to evaluate architecture and design as a force capable of shaping the world we inhabit. Architecture does not simply shape urban spaces, It shapes societies. 

The award is not only an international recognition of the architectural achievement of the Design Building, but also a vivid practice of the harmonious symbiosis between the building and the campus environment, the modern expression of local culture and the concept of sustainability. The School of Design leads the campus culture construction with the concept of ‘big design’, transforming functional space into a carrier for education. Professor Ruan Xin described the design building as a ‘house society - a house in the city’. Since its opening, the Design Building has not only cultivated the students of SJTU with its architectural beauty, but also become a campus hall that breaks the boundaries of disciplines and human communication, a ‘home’ for all the people of SJTU, which fully demonstrates that Shanghai Jiao Tong University adheres to the principle of ‘educating people with beauty and cultivating people with culture’ in the construction of high-quality campuses. It fully demonstrates SJTU's philosophy and practice of ‘educating people through beauty and culture’ in the construction of a high-quality campus.

The Prix Versailles was established in 2015 by UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA). The award is based on a nomination system by experts, and an international jury selects outstanding architectural works from around the world. The members of the jury, who cover a wide range of disciplines, are announced at the award ceremony and then officially published online to ensure the impartiality of the selection process.2025 The jury includes: Irina Bokova, former Director General of UNESCO (Chairperson), Maria de Medeiros, Portuguese actress and director, Reandro Erlich, Argentinean conceptual artist, Lang Lang, Chinese pianist, Ma Yansong, Chinese architect, Pritzker, American architect and architect. Ma Yansong, American Pritzker-winning architect Tom Main, Dutch fashion designer Iris van Hoeben and renowned British actress Emma Watson.

The Prix Versailles France has eight categories: airports, campuses, passenger terminals, sports venues, museums, commercial spaces, hotels and restaurants. A series of outstanding architectural works created by the world's leading architects and renowned firms have been honoured in the Grand Prix de Versailles 2025, including the Gadigal metro station in Sydney, Australia, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster, the New Kagawa Prefectural Gymnasium designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Kazushige Meshima, Japan, and the internationally renowned Zaha Hadid Architects, who were awarded the Grand Prize for their work. KAFD Metro Station in Saudi Arabia designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, and the Joslyn Art Museum in the US designed by the internationally renowned firm Snøhetta, among others.