Wang Shu's drawing for the Xiangshan Campus, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, all images courtesy Wang Shu
In the Fall of 2011, the Rice Design Alliance (RDA) brought three architects from China to lecture in Houston at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. One of the speakers, Wang Shu, was just announced as the next winner of the Pritzker Prize. RDA has once again shown its knack for bringing master architects to Houston before they emerge as Pritzker Prize winners. Past lecturers have included Richard Meier, Aldo Rossi, Robert Venturi, Rafael Moneo, Renzo Piano, and Glenn Murcutt.
Bringing great architects from China to Houston is no small effort and does not happen very often. Cite followed up on the great opportunity. The morning after each lecture, Julia Mandell, a designer and writer, interviewed each of the visitors at the Hotel Zaza over breakfast. I had the privilege of sitting in and recording the conversations. Wang Shu had a strikingly calm intensity about him. He was focused and aware of his tight schedule for the day but decidedly not in a rush. He did not plug a laptop into the wall. He did not answer his mobile phone or send texts.
Sticks used for measurement in vernacular Chinese construction.
Though the hotel restaurant offers a full menu, Wang Shu ordered only a loaf of bread which he tore into pieces with his hands and dipped into oil. He chewed deliberately and loudly while explaining how important working with his hands is to his design process:
Some architects tell me, 'I really enjoy your work; I want to do something like you,' but I tell them it is not easy because it is not just about design. First, it is about your way of working. If you don’t change your way of working, you can’t do something like this. You just draw on the computer.
Second, you have to change your way of life. Some people just want to change their ideas. No, changing an idea is not enough. You need practical experience—experience influences you more than your thinking. I say, 'Your hand controls your brain; it’s not your brain that controls your hand.'
Wang Shu with a head craftsman.
Simply drawing by hand, however, is not enough, according to Shu. He added:
The life most now have is one of speed. Just 100 years ago, Chinese were the slowest people in the world, the ones who most knew how to enjoy a relaxed way of life. Now you can’t imagine the Chinese like this. Now the Chinese are the fastest people in all the world.
To slow down means that on your way to your office, you go to a small courtyard, to a garden, then through your neighborhood, along a small street, and finally to an office building. Now life is very fast. You have an apartment unit, you take an elevator down, you take a train directly to an office building, then you take the elevator and go up.
To read the full interview of this extraordinary architect and principal of Amateur Architecture Studio, subscribe to Cite or join the Rice Design Alliance. The special issue on China will be out at the end of March.
