Curators
Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu are architects and educators. In 1997, they co-founded Amateur Architecture Studio in Hangzhou, China. Together, the two also founded the architecture department at the China Academy of Art in 2003. In response to the reality of rapid urban development and the massive demolition of traditional buildings in China, they create new explorations in contemporary Chinese architecture. In their work, they have committed themselves to the research and practice of reconstructing contemporary Chinese architecture, which is reflected in their built projects such as the National Archives of Publications and Culture in Hangzhou, the Ningbo Historic Museum and the Xiangshan Campus of the China Academy of Art, which in 2021 was named one of “The 25 Most Significant Works of Postwar Architecture” worldwide by The New York Times. Instead of simply imitating traditional styles, their goal is to reconnect tradition with the contemporary.
Wang Shu is Dean of the Architecture School at the China Academy of Art. In projects such as the Ningbo Historic Museum, he has experimented with a new way of building by recycling demolished traditional building materials mixed with modern materials and techniques. In 2006, he designed the TILES GARDEN for the first China Pavilion at the Venice International Architecture Biennale and has subsequently been awarded numerous prizes. He was the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate and, in 2023, was elected as a member of the French Academy of Architecture.
Lu Wenyu was awarded the Schelling Architecture Prize in Germany and an Honorary Award from the Venice Biennale in 2010. She was the recipient of the 2019 Gold Medal of Tau Sigma Delta and, in 2023, was elected as a member of the French Academy of Architecture. From 2020 to 2023, she was the juror of the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.