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The Weitzman School of Design's latest exhibition offers a look at the impact its alumni had in making China modern

2022-01-18T13:03:00-05:00

What can a western architectural education do in a developing country? The legacy of one of the leading design colleges in America is being examined as such in a new exhibition called Building in China: A Century of Dialogues on Modern Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design in Philadelphia.

The exhibition is presented in unison with Southeast University School of Architecture and the Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning and features a two-part format that looks first at the historical impacts the university has had on the development of architecture in the country after 1920.

Peace Hotel of Beijing, designed by Tingbao Yang. Image courtesy University of Pennsylvania.

Penn educated a number of prominent Chinese architects during those years, and many went on to successful architectural careers that were heavily influenced by the proximity to the international movement of modernism which began at the university. The fi...

Amateur Architecture Studio brings traditional Chinese materials and craftsmanship into modern architecture

2018-08-30T16:15:00-04:00

Wang Shu and his wife, Lu Wenyu, of China’s Amateur Architecture Studio want to protect Chinese culture and history by returning to artisanal building techniques and the use of materials such as natural stone, wood and bamboo. Wang Shu’s rejection of what he calls “professional, soulless architecture” has almost become a war cry. That kind of architecture, he believes, is ruining China.

Amateur Architecture Studio focuses on creating work that transcends the black and white divide of traditional and modern architecture. The duo have made it their mission to bring back handmade work and natural materials into modernization.

China Academy of Art Xiangshan Campus by Amateur Architecture Studio. Image: Tõnis Kimmel/Flickr.

Wang Shu was the first Chinese Pritzker winner, awarded back in 2012, for his commitment to reviving traditional craftsmanship in the profession.

China Academy of Art, Wa Shan Guesthouse, Xiangshan Campus by Amateur Architecture Studio. Image: Iwan Baan.

The studio works with material such as bamboo, stone, and wood rather than only focusing on concrete and steel. The Chinese tradition of handmade construction is essential to Shu, who prefers the title of "artisan" rather than "architect".

Wang Shu and André Corrêa do Lago announced as new jurors of the coveted Pritzker Prize

2017-09-06T13:28:00-04:00

As the Pritzker Prize marks its 40th anniversary with the upcoming 2018 edition, the award which has come to be known internationally as architecture’s highest honor welcomes two new members to its jury: architect and 2012 Laureate Wang Shu and André Aranha Corrêa do Lago.

They will be replacing architect and educator Yung Ho Chang, and architecture curator, writer and editor Kristin Feireiss. The two served on the Pritzker Prize Jury for 7 and 6 years, respectively, and have recently stepped down. Jurors serve a minimum three-year term, which allows for both change and stability in the decision-making process

As a former winner of the prize, the Chinese architect's recent appointment comes as no surprise. Wang, whose work incorporates cultural tradition, craft skills, and spontaneous elements, said of the honor that “it is a great responsibility to serve on the jury. I also hope to share my knowledge of China and the Asian context with them.”

Mr. Corrêa do Lago, on the other hand,...

Architects Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown Bring New Eco-Friendly Designs to China

2013-10-24T14:25:00-04:00

After years of witnessing the ravaging effects of China's rapid transformation from a rural to an urban society, the Tsao brothers decided to devise an alternative. It's no easy feat in a country that has been destroying evidence of its past at an unprecedented rate. At a lecture at the Architectural League last April, Wang Shu, China's most prominent architect, bemoaned the "crazy change" sweeping his homeland, noting that 90 percent of traditional buildings have been destroyed in recent years.

Want to work for TsAO & McKOWN Architects? They're currently hiring!

Wang Shu bucks China’s megacity trend

2013-06-17T20:25:00-04:00

“Cities today have become far too large,” Wang said in an interview while visiting New York in April. “I’m really worried, because it’s happening too fast and we have already lost so much.” Wang, a sturdy 49-year-old, has built his small architectural practice as a riposte to this heedless destruction. With his wife, architect Lu Wenyu, he runs a 10-person firm called Amateur Architecture Studio in Hangzhou, a picturesque lakeside city southwest of Shanghai.

Wang Shu, China's Champion of Slow Architecture

2013-06-14T13:57:00-04:00

The day after Chinese architect Wang Shu was awarded the $100,000 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the field’s equivalent of a Nobel, in May 2012, he returned to the old Beijing neighborhood where he grew up and found it in the process of being demolished. The hutong, with its maze of narrow streets and traditional courtyard houses, was being sacrificed to make room for a new philosophy center.

Related Blog post on Archinect: Beijing Rising - Of Walls and Walkways

Wang Shu named to Time 100 list

2013-04-22T18:51:00-04:00

In its 100 list, Time describes Wang, 49, as "the rare architect who has successfully blended China's quest for novel and eye-catching architecture with respect for traditional aesthetics."

She came to find her memory

2013-01-07T15:32:00-05:00

"In offering an alternative view, Wang disputes that the power and prevalence of huge new building projects are the only or inevitable architectural products his country has to offer"

Last year Rowan Moore had a chance to speak with Wang Shu (winner of the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize) when he was in London for the Sustaining Identity conference at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The conference sought to bring together acclaimed international architects whose work resists homogenisation by prioritising place, the senses and memory. Their discussion published early last month, touched on the temporal nature of China's massive building projects, the influence of but not strict adherence to traditional building methods and forms, along with the reason the studio has Amateur, in its name.

Wang Shu named an "Innovator of the Year" by the WSJ

2012-10-25T20:07:00-04:00

When Wang Shu won the prize, he was in LA, about to give a lecture at UCLA. Architect Neil Denari, a professor at the school and Wang's host, was with him that afternoon. "His cell phone was just buzzing," Denari says. "Chinese journalists at three in the morning calling him and calling him." The news was leaked a day before the official announcement was made. "He didn't look like a guy who was thinking, This is what I've been waiting for, to be world famous! He looked a little bemused."

Fusing Old and New, to International Acclaim

2012-08-09T14:51:00-04:00

“We want to copy Manhattan,” he said over lunch near his studio. “I love Manhattan. It’s a very interesting place. But if you want to copy something that was accomplished in 200 years, it’s very difficult. New York was not designed by architects, it was designed by time.”

Jane Perlez profiles Wang Shu and his wife, Lu Wenyu of Amateur Architecture Studio. Their conversation touched on the architects' concerns regarding China’s rush to urbanization along Western models. They also discussed how the two split off duties in the firm.

Wang Shu blasts demolition culture in China

2012-05-24T14:19:00-04:00

The Chinese winner of architecture’s most prestigious award has criticised the wanton demolition that has left many of the nation’s cities fragmented and almost unrecognisable to their citizens. The comments from Wang Shu, who will on Friday receive the 2012 Pritzker prize in a ceremony in Beijing, highlight widespread complaints in China about urban planning amid a process of urbanisation that saw more than 20m rural dwellers move to cities last year alone.

Pritzker prize’s double payoff: Fame for Chinese architect, possible brand boost for Hyatt

2012-05-24T14:14:00-04:00

When architect Wang Shu accepts his field’s richest prize in a ceremony Friday at the seat of China’s legislature, a symbolic second winner will be waiting in the background — Hyatt Hotels. The Pritzker Architecture Prize has special resonance for communist leaders who want to promote China as a global cultural power. Receiving it made Wang a celebrity in China. Until now, the 49-year-old had been little known outside architecture circles.

Wang Shu interviewed by Robert McCarter and Seng Kuan

2012-03-27T20:15:00-04:00

Here he discusses his work with architectural historians Robert McCarter, the Sam Fox School's Ruth and Norman Moore Professor of Architecture, and Seng Kuan, assistant professor of architecture. The talk takes place in the university's Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, designed by Pritzker laureate, and former WUSTL professor, Fumihiko Maki.

With all the news of Wang Shu, since he was announced as this year's Pritzker laureate, there has not been very much coverage from Shu, himself, speaking about his work.

Pritzker Winner Wang Shu Confirmed as RISD's 2012 Commencement Speaker

2012-03-07T14:04:00-05:00

On Saturday, June 2 at 1:30PM, 197 graduate and 448 undergraduate students from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) will receive their diplomas during RISD’s 2012 Commencement celebration.

At the ceremony, RISD will present honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees on to several special guests at its 2012 Commencement ceremony. The honorary degree recipients who are being recognized for creating groundbreaking work and making a profound impact on contemporary culture are: architect and professor Wang Shu, who will also deliver the keynote address; writer-activist Rebecca Solnit; and the directors and producer of the Japanese film animation house Studio Ghibli – Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki, respectively, with Suzuki accepting the award on behalf of the studio.

Editor's Picks #253

2012-03-04T18:04:00-05:00

Chinese architect Wang Shu was this week named the 2012 Pritzker Prize winner. Will Galloway commented "unexpected but very coolio. i met wang shu last year at conference held by my uni her in tokyo. nice guy and very impressive presentation. love his work and his approach. i like that pritzker is not going after the usual suspects, personally."

Woody Evans a librarian living on the south side of Dubai., recently interviewed Sophia Vyzoviti an assistant professor of architectural design methodology at the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly Greece, about Building Between Dimensions.

They discussed augmented reality, touching stuff, and the aesthetics of smart textures. Sophia is quoted therein saying "Material computing is a recent discipline specific term that describes the analogue form-finding processes complementing the new digital design tools". The two also explored the possible implications of applying the phrase uncanny valley from robotics to the development of biomimetic architecture. There is also this mouthful of a passage, used to describe Sophia’s book Soft Shells, "The work is primarily analogue, conducted in a low-tech, high-concept fashion, but operates as a digital morphogenesis propedia, exercises algorithmic thinking and suggests alternative and cross-over fabrication methods".

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Wang Shu is named first Chinese Pritzker winner

2012-02-27T11:27:00-05:00

Wang Shu, 49, deftly melds tradition and modernity, often by reusing bricks and tiles from demolished buildings in such bold new designs as a history museum in the Chinese city of Ningbo. Wang calls his office the "Amateur Architecture Studio," yet that name is far too modest, the jury that selected him said in its citation. His work "is that of a virtuoso in full command of the instruments of architecture — form, scale, material, space and light," said the jury...

Note: as the.rkitekt points out below in the comments, "Wang is NOT the first Chinese architect to win the Pritzker as so many writers are mentioning. I.M. Pei won in the 80's and while living predominantely in the US, he was born in Guangzhou, China. Wang is the first China based Chinese architect to win the prize."

Editor's Picks #236

2011-11-06T17:08:22-05:00

Gregory Walker, noted that Zaha Hadid Architects now has an app for that and thinks they may have finally jumped the shark. However, Steven Ward thought that "in a context where your business is built on maintaining your brand, this probably doesn't seem like a tough or strange decision at all." and lletdownl agreed arguing that "it makes perfect sense to me to develop a method of viewing your work targeted specifically to the fastest growing method of browsing.

In the latest Contours feature Guy Horton, asked What Should Architecture Occupy? He concluded that, "occupying is a state of mind more than anything. It’s a stance, an orientation, an outlook, a perspective. Where do you stand right now?”
EllaStelter responds “Architects certainly aren't part of the 1%, but we do generally serve their interests. From what I see, architecture is a profession that is rather resistant to change and challenging the status quo, even when it is in our best interests."

Don’t forget to participate in Archinect’s anonymous #OWS survey

William Hunter, wrote about a group of student’s, from UCL Bartlett Development Planning Unit’s MSc Building and Urban Design in Development (BUDD) course, attempts at Decoding Bangkok’s Pocket-Urbanization. While in Bangkok for three weeks the students worked closely with two local organizations CODI and BMP. William argued that the main reason for this teamup was the fact that "truly participatory design arguably req...