Wang Shu & Lu Wenyu, with their firm Amateur Architecture Studio in Hangzhou, have developed an approach that is radically different from most Chinese architecture. Freeing themselves from Chinese architectural traditionalism and often destructive modernity, they have established new practices that are both inventive and critical. Wang Shu & Lu Wenyu, with their firm
Amateur Architecture Studio in Hangzhou, have developed an approach that is determinedly different from most Chinese architecture. Freeing themselves from often destructive modernity, they have established new practices that are both inventive and critical. Amateur Architecture Studio are builders who explore the relationship between changing architecture and lifestyles in China, poetically interpreting traditional Chinese expertise via contemporary architectural language.
The name of the firm reflects their interest in vernacular Chinese architecture, which is craftsmanlike, affordable, spontaneous, and often impermanent. Eager to preserve traditional techniques and expertise, Amateur Architecture Studio adopts a critical stance with regard to the profession of the architect in China which, in a context of urban and rural upheaval, places image above use and yields all too often to the lure of finance and symbolic representation.
The firm tackles the issue of the wholesale destruction and poorly planned reconstruction of Chinese cities. They use their expertise to serve “contemporary tradition”. They defend the professionalism of amateur architecture, and yet this is a very serious conceptual exercise as it involves thinking about how people live their lives.
They carry out their architectural work like artisans who are also expert innovators. This is an experimental approach in the literal sense, with no theoretical presuppositions. The work of Amateur Architecture Studio focuses on reinterpreting local traditional architecture and involves recycling and re-use. Repurposed materials, traditional crafts and ancestral building methods are all sources of inspiration.
For Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, form is of secondary importance. Architecture is not artistic, though they are not opposed to art. The language of art simply draws inspiration from architecture, making it possible to build with a great deal of freedom. Over the last ten years, Amateur Architecture Studio has created a remarkable body of work and a unique style that challenges the role of the architect today, in China and beyond.