Amateur Architecture Studio, Ningbo History Museum, 2008. . Image Courtesy of Louisiana
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.