Considered the Nobel Prize of the design world, the Pritzker Prize honors a living architect whose oeuvre shows a combination of vision, talent and commitment, that has made a “significant contribution to humanity and the built environment through the art of design.”
Amateur Architecture Studio
Wang Shu, the first Chinese winner of the Pritzker, is a firm believer that specialist structure should be on the principles.
“One difficulty of structure is the fact that it thinks too much of a construction,” he states. “A house, which is nearer to our simple and trivial lifetime, is more basic architecture”
Wang considers himself an amateur in existence, thus naming the design company he founded with his wife, Lu Wenyu, Amateur Architecture Studio. “For myself, having an artisan or a craftsman is an amateur, or almost the exact same thing.”
Amateur Architecture Studio
In 2005, Wang received the Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction in the Asia Pacific, according to his work on two major projects, the Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum …
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… along with the Five Scattered Houses (also in Ningbo, China).
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Wang treats houses and buildings as both “critical and experimental,” he states. He uses recycled materials and contrasts conventional craftsmanship and construction methods, but firmly roots his work in the current as well.
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As stated by the Pritzker awarding jury, honoring Wang with the most significant architecture award acknowledges “the role that China will play in the development of architectural ideals”
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Wang made the Library of Wenzheng College at Suzhou University (found here) with careful thought of “traditions of Suzhou gardening that indicates that buildings found between water and mountains shouldn’t be prominent,” he states.
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The library received the Architecture Arts Award of China in 2004.
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The Vertical Courtyard Apartments, made up of six 26-story towers, was nominated for the German International High-Rise Award in 2008.
Wang, humbled from the Pritzker Prize, is now forced to look at his greater body of work. He states, “I have done a lot of things during the last ten years. It proves that earnest hard work and persistence result in positive outcomes.”
More:
The Pritzker Architecture Prize
2011 Pritzker Winner Praised for ‘Uncommon Richness’