Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, a duo of architects from China's Amateur Architecture Studio, will be in charge of the next 20th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale! What can we expect?
Venice Architecture Biennale 2027
When will the Biennale take place and who are its curators?
From May 8 to November 21, 2027, Venice will turn into the world capital of architecture for the 20th time. The event will be curated by Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, life and professional partners who have run the Amateur Architecture Studio in Hangzhou, China, since 1997. The duo also jointly founded the Department of Architecture at the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts and the School of Architecture, of which Wang Shu became the first dean.
Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu curate the Venice Architecture Biennale 2027
Photo: Matteo Losurdo © La Biennale di Venezia
Although they create architecture together, in 2012 it was Wang Shu who won the Pritzker Prize, which recognized his virtuosic mastery of the tools of architecture - form, scale, material, space and light - as well as his relentless pursuit of creating uncompromising, responsible architecture that stems from a sense of cultural and site-specificity.
Ningbo Historical Museum
Photo: Siyuwj | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY-SA 3.0
What distinguishes their work? Experiments rooted in the local context, craftsmanship, the combination of memory and innovation, the juxtaposition of reclaimed building materials with contemporary engineering techniques. The studio's best-known projects include the Suzhou University Library building, the Xiangshan campus of the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts and the Ningbo Historical Museum.
A detail of the Ningbo Historical Museum
Photo: Siyuwj | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY-SA 3.0
The architects have already presented their work at the Venice Biennale - in 2006 as part of the China Pavilion, and in 2010 and 2016 they were invited to participate in this celebration of architecture by curators Kazuyo Sejima and Alejandro Aravena.
The death of architecture or a time of sincerity?
What can we expect from the 20th Venice Architecture Biennale?
Why were they entrusted with this role?
Their vision, deeply rooted in the memory of places and knowledge of building processes, is today an important voice in the international debate about architecture and the importance of inhabiting the world's spaces. It is in them that La Biennale di Venezia sees two leading figures capable of combining cultural responsibility with experimental genius, offering contributions of extraordinary quality in an age that demands knowledge, balance and imagination. Their leadership will inspire broad and necessary reflection, steering the 2027 Architecture Biennale toward new perspectives and new ways of understanding our relationship with space, memory and engaged community
- explains the decision of Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, director of the Biennale.
Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu curate the Venice Architecture Biennale 2027
Photo: Matteo Losurdo © La Biennale di Venezia
What can we expect from the upcoming edition of the Biennale?
In today's world, rapid and numerous changes in architecture are an apparent phenomenon, the result of excessive conceptualization or clear commercialization. Conceptual experiments taken to extremes are often detached from reality, and excessive commercialization becomes only popular and short-lived. The phenomenon changes rapidly in order to survive, breaking the bond with the real place. This will lead to the death of architecture. As a result, architecture becomes a kind of illusory vision about the future, architects say. - For this reason, in the face of the real crisis of this world, persisting with the simple and true concept and method of architecture has a special value. We will strive to present and search for it with as much sincerity as possible - for a better reality and future
- they add.
