Amateur Architecture Studio founders Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu have been chosen as the curators of the 2027 edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale, with aims to combat “the death of architecture”.
The two Chinese architects, who have won numerous awards, established their own studio in 1997 and also founded the architecture department at the China Academy of Art in 2003 and the School of Architecture in 2007.
“It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu as artistic directors of the Architecture Department,” biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco said.
“Their vision, deeply rooted in the memory of places and in the knowledge of construction processes, represents today an essential voice in the international debate on architecture and on the meaning of inhabiting the world’s spaces.”
Conceptual experiments “are often divorced from reality”
The duo said they will try to meet the challenge of curating the Venice Architecture Biennale and argued that excessive conceptualisation and commercialisation have led to architecture that is divorced from reality.
“In the current world, the rapid and multiple changes in architecture are more a phenomenon of appearance, the result of excessive conceptualisation or marked commercialisation,” Lu and Wang said.
“Conceptual experiments driven to extremes are often divorced from reality and over-commercialisation tends to be merely popular and short-lived,” they continued.
The two architects argue that this trend could lead to the “death of architecture”.
“This phenomenon changes rapidly in order to survive, breaking away from the connection with the real place,” they said. “It will lead to the death of architecture. Therefore, architecture becomes a kind of delusional expression about the future.”
“This certainly won’t be the tech bro biennale” says Venice Architecture Biennale curator Carlo Ratti
Instead, they want to focus on simpler concepts.
“For this reason, in the face of the real crisis of this world, insisting on a simple and true concept and method of architecture has a special value,” Lu and Wang concluded.
“We will strive to present this value and exploration with the greatest sincerity for a better reality and future.”
Amateur Architecture Studio‘s best-known work includes the Ningbo History Museum, which was built on the remains of demolished villages, and the Fuyang Cultural Complex clad in recycled tiles.
In 2012, Wang won the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Appointment to inspire “necessary reflection”
Lu and Wang have previously taken part in the China Pavilion at the Venice biennale 2006, receiving a special mention for the project Decay of a Dome, and participated again in 2016.
Their appointment will lead the Venice Architecture Biennale 2027 towards new perspectives, according to Buttafuoco.
“Their guidance will inspire broad and necessary reflection, projecting the Biennale Architettura 2027 toward new perspectives and new ways of understanding our relationship with space, memory, and the engaged community,” he said.
“We extend our sincerest gratitude to Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu for accepting this role, along with our warmest wishes for their work.”
The photo is courtesy of the Venice Architecture Biennale.