Courtyard of the Chinese Academy of Arts, University Campus in Xiangshan. 2007. Photos: Lv Hengzhong
Recently, has released the highest annual architecture award, the Premio Pritzker. This year has gone Wang Shu, an unknown Chinese architect resident in the city of Hangzou, the vast south Asian subcontinent.
Jin hua Pottery House. 2006. Made with materials from demolition
Shu de 49 years is to combine tradition and modernity in response to strong urban transformation processes experienced by their country. Together with his wife Lu Wenyu founded in 1997 what we define as Amateur Architecture Studio to engage themselves in numerous public works, and community facilities for housing skyscraper collective.
Among his works should be stressed History Museum Ningbo City, a massive block which functions as urban icon by retrieving numerous recycled materials like bricks from demolitions. Its massive presence and dilapidated appearance would provide a stark contrast to the great buildings and high-tech glass that currently flooded Chinese cities.
It is very critical to the usual practice in acting in urban central Asian giant, consisting of razing the existing and massively displace the resident population to build new neighborhoods completely different. How would this architect in a recent interview "China originally had a large number of wonderful cities. First was demolished anything. Then they called modern city. They built great roads and avenues. Then gave the real estate companies in each block to build huge space apartment buildings. And so Chinese cities have ended up becoming a huge soulless suburb. For example, Shanghai today is a mix of New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas ".
Location of the Chinese Academy of Arts, University Campus in Xiangshan. 2007
Museum of the History of Ningbo. 2008
Apartments vertical courtyard. Hangzhou. 2007. Photos: Lu Wenyu
El arquitecto Wang Shu. Photos: Zhu Chenzhou
