Wang Shu

Squarely/Sperhing by Wang Shu, 2011

Born in the Western most province of China, Wang Shu had great ambition to be part of the world beyond his city.  In 1985 he received his degree in Architecture and just three years later, Shu then received his Masters Degree.  After opening Amateur Architecture Studio with his wife in 1997, Shu took on numerous projects, creating architecture that he felt needed spontaneity and a purpose in everyday life.  His work came to be viewed as experimental and impulsive.  His 2011 work entitled Squarely/Sphering awed the architecture world, leading him to win the 2012 Pritzker Prize award.  The full scale pavilion prototype was constructed from the lightest materials possible, with nothing anchoring it to the ground, addressing the ideas of sustainability and efficiency in frame work.  Polycarbonate sheets protect the entwined, lumbar frame, forming a cylindrical shape.  The structure, playing on the oxymoron of being both square and round, was exhibited within the Ultra Violet Village, an exhibition provoking conversation on permanent versus transitory building in cityscapes.  Shu’s Squarely/Sphering stimulated the possibility of creating lightweight, sustainable, moveable structures.  Of his own work, Shu remarks, “When I named my studio ‘Amateur Architecture’, it was to emphasize the spontaneous and experimental aspects of my work, as opposed to being ‘official and monumental’.”  To view more of Shu’s work, click here.