Month: July 2020

The Australian Institute of Architects has announced the winners of the 2020 NSW Architecture Awards. Celebrating the best of the state’s architecture across 13 different categories, a total of 41 awards and 32 commendations have been given this year. Held on the evening of Friday, July 3rd, the NSW Chapter live-streamed the awards presentation, allowing the public to freely join what is normally a members-only event.

Over the past two centuries, cities in China have multiplied and expanded on a large scale, under accelerated urbanization. Mass demolition of the old city fabric, occurring everywhere, is leaving industrial debris and fragmented cultural artifacts buried forever, under shiny new skyscrapers. As old Chinese cities are collapsing and new urban centers are outspreading, a part of the city was lost, the old demolished landscape. Wang Shu, the first Chinese citizen to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, responded to this past-present relation by working with recycled materials and traditional know-how. In the following, we explore some of Wang Shu’s renowned works such as Ningbo History Museum, Ningbo (2008), Xiangshan Campus of China Academy of Art, Hangzhou (2004), and Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum (2005), to examine his humanistic approach to the city.

The following text was drafted in response to the initial prompt in The Architect’s Newspaper’s “Post-Pandemic Potentials” series.

The project site is located in a small village within the Taihang Mountains 70 kilometers from Beijing. The village is spread from the bottom of a valley to the slopes, and the yard located nearly at the highest point. According to local folklore, a castle once stood above the village, built during the Yuan Dynasty. This is how the village’s name, meaning “under fortress” came to be,and as you look back you find yourself gazing upon beautiful Da’an Mountain and the Zhaitang Valley. Both of which have been left unchanged for millions of years.