The 48-year-old architect has become one of the youngest recipients of this award in its entire history. This is very significant, since the Pritzker Prize is awarded precisely for the vital contribution to architecture. But the methodological and imaginative integrity of Wang Shu's works allowed the jury to mark him in some way "in advance": the number of his completed projects is relatively small, and the absolute majority of them belong to the last decade.
Wang Shu has so far worked only in China, his only "forays" abroad were installation projects, which were successfully shown at the Venice Biennials in 2006 and 2010. Along with them, the attention of the international community was attracted by its Historical Museum in Ningbo (2003-2008), the walls of which are made of "recyclable materials" - stone and brick from buildings demolished during the construction "boom". It is a complex of several asymmetric buildings, united by a planked platform: it is a reminder of the historical fabric of the city and its human scale, which is rapidly disappearing in Chinese cities today.
The theme of tradition and modernity is key for Wang Shu. He refuses to quote elements of Chinese architecture, but carefully studies its history, primarily in the form of handicraft, folk construction techniques. To do this, during the 1990s, he worked with ordinary builders on modest facilities, mostly renovating old buildings (almost all of them were then demolished to give way to large development projects). In his opinion, even now such masters are characterized by spontaneity, "craft" and reliance on a centuries-old cultural tradition. It is this “craft” that Wang Shu had in mind when he called his bureau “Amateur Architecture Studio”: for him an artisan is the same amateur, but so is everyone who loves his work, and does not do it for the sake of money or career.
Spontaneity is extremely important for Wang Shu: in the work of an architect, especially in China, there are many unexpected turns, so you need to be prepared for changes in the project even at the construction stage. The master also considers this quality in a philosophical sense, which reminds of the traditions of the Buddhist Chan school (in the West its Japanese counterpart Zen is better known): a project can be created very quickly (the historical museum in Ningbo appeared in a fully developed form overnight), but on based on preliminary reflections, in the case of Wang Shu - a variety of studies. It is no coincidence that this is similar to the work of a calligrapher: the architect does a lot of this traditional Chinese art.
Another line in his work is individuality and humanity; he calls for a building to be called a “home” rather than a “building,” and he also calls for remembering that life is more important than design.
Among his sources of inspiration, in addition to the national tradition, world art history, literature, cinema, among the masters of architecture - Alvaro Siza, Aldo Rossi, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Luis Kahn, Carlo Scarpa, as well as the early works of Tadao Ando.
Wang Shu seems quite worthy, albeit a surprisingly young Pritzker Prize laureate, but his victory this year, alas, has a political or commercial implication. Back in the fall of 2011, the organizer of the award, the Hyatt Foundation (founded by the owners of the hotel chain), announced that the next awards ceremony would be held in Beijing, and that this decision was warmly supported by the mayor's office of the capital of China.
And then, as if in a pandanus to the scene, the winner of the award was chosen. Such a coincidence could be considered accidental, if now the organizers did not tell in detail that this is precisely an accident, and that this is not the first time in the history of the award: Americans have already received "Pritzker" in the USA, and Italians - in Italy, and it does not mean anything … Such verbosity leads to suspicion.
Nina Frolova
