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HTI3 - Journal Week 19 'Wang Shu' (E-Learning)



Wang Shu (Fig.01) is an architect based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, born in 1963, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China. He founded his studio Amateur Architecture Studio with his practice partner and wife.


Wang Shu's purpose of materiality in his projects is to make sure that the building have a continuity of local culture as he feel that many building especially things like having a simple life is lost by the city. Comparing the country side of China and in the busy city, both old and new buildings are very different from one another. As said by Wang Shu, Chinese people like to talk about their history but they don't preserve the culture, similarly to the conflict between architecture in education and in practice.


Fig. 02 - Ningbo History Museum with recycled materials used as it's exterior walls (source:https://cdn.ca.emap.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2010/03/AR03_AM_Wang_Shu_Ningbo_Museum_4426-1024x670.jpg)


Locality is necessary in order for the build to relate to the surroundings and culture of the people. Like researching the local traditions to implement into the build so that the build has a connection with it's surroundings. For example, while researching and designing Ningbo History Museum (Fig.02), Wang Shu found an interesting tradition carried out by the nearby village of using recycled construction materials to build the houses as every year due to natural disaster, the buildings will be damaged and collapsed so the locals are able to save costs by using recycled materials from the ruins to rebuild the area. With the knowledge and concept of using recycled materials, Wang Shu applied the technique by industrializing the method using machines to recycle old building tiles into new tiles.


Fig. 03 - Village near Ningbo History Museum that uses recycled materials to construct the houses (source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAzC3VT3CZI)


The system employed to determine the external wall design and wall finish is to determine the site's history and researching the local culture (Fig.03) surrounding the site to create a sense of familiarity to the locals yet look new and refreshing. Having the locals to be able to relate to the new buildings and surroundings enables them to support Wang Shu in further designing their town.



Wang Shu designed Fuyang Cultural Complex (Fig.04) is a museum that replicate a traditional village. Using materials similar to another build opposite the site that Wang Shu designed. Wang Shu's approach towards a museum is unique as he curates the history and culture of the area into buildings itself, carefully selecting the materials such as different type of stones quarried locally that locals having been using to build their houses previously. Personally, I would not have thought of preserving history and culture as the building itself, I think that it is a great idea to preserve the local history and culture in the building regardless of what is exhibiting in it as this gives the build a meaning and connection to the site it is built on and allowing the interior to have a possibility of showcasing different exhibits during different season.



Other than materials, Wang Shu also designed Wencun Village (Fig.05) which is opposite Fuyang Cultural Complex which focus more on the locals' daily routine and lifestyle. During the initial design phase, Wang Shu was presented a drawing of the village which seems more like a westernized house with front yard than a Chinese village. However, Wang Shu feels that the design is too 'luxurious' for Chinese people as the land is scarce but there are many people living there. With much observations, Wang Shu realized that although the village is very dense, the people there are very close-knitted to one another so he re-designed the houses to be nearer to one another, which seems more crowded but allows the villagers to interact more closely with one another. Wang Shu also included a tiny 10sqm courtyard system into each houses as he believes that the courtyards are important in Chinese culture as it is a 'continuity of the culture' that if the courtyard didn't exist in the first place, majority of the Chinese culture today like elderly playing chess would not exist.


References

ACSANational. 2019. Influencers The Pritzker Architecture Prize Wang Shu And Lu Wenyu, Amateur Architecture [Online] Available at: https://youtu.be/XAzC3VT3CZI [Accessed 25 August 2022]


Wikipedia. 2022. Wang Shu [Online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Shu

[Accessed 25 August 2022]

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