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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... View full entry
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. — South China Morning Post
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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. — online.wsj.com
Want to work for TsAO & McKOWN Architects? They're currently hiring! View full entry
“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.
— bloomberg.com
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. — businessweek.com
Related Blog post on Archinect: Beijing Rising - Of Walls and Walkways View full entry
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." — latimes.com
"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" — Guardian
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... View full entry
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." — online.wsj.com
“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.” — NYT
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. View full entry
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.
— ft.com
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.
— washingtonpost.com
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. — youtube.com
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. View full entry
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. — risd.edu
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
