Nov 18, 20223 min read

Wang Shu: Material Wisdom in Architecture

A couple years back, I stumbled across the architectural work of Wang Shu, and I immediately felt a connection to the work. His buildings possess texture, life, personality. He captures the essence of Chinese architecture without copy and pasting caricatures of other buildings. During my last couple of trips to China, I was profoundly struck by the use of materials and materiality in architecture. While traveling around with Zheng Xuewu, previous teacher and now close friend, we stayed with quite a few local artists. Two local artists and their surroundings stand out in my mind. One was of a less well-known, less established artist who was struggling to make a living by creating art. He lived in a studio/home, where he spent a majority of his time. Immediately upon entering the new-ish construction building, I was blinded with cold fluorescent lights buzzing. Up the stairs and through the common walkway, we entered his home/studio. The wall of chemical smell from the fake wood flooring hit me like a ton of bricks, almost to the point of feeling nauseous. I had a headache from it until my nose got used to the smell. Xuewu and I, though feeling very welcomed and appreciated, decided to move to a different space due to this building’s quality. It struck me hard that this artist was trying to live and thrive in his surroundings, but I couldn’t help but think about how limiting and harmful his place was. During this same trip, we visited an artist who was quite well off and established. He had traveled internationally and lived in the countryside on the far north edge of greater Beijing. Here he built studios, a museum, his home, and educational spaces for himself and others to learn in and enjoy. The aesthetic pulled me back to the ancient villages I had visited previously. Though renovated for tourists, the ancient water town of ZhuJiaJiao struck me with its materiality used in the architecture. As I walked around, the still-standing ancient buildings had a soul that only time could provide. Though this artist’s home was new, the materials he used—logs, stones, huge wood beams, earthen plaster, etc.—tugged at that same soul. I immediately felt my muscles relaxing and my thoughts lightened just from being within this place for a short while. Material adaptability. Wang brings this concept up during this interview, and I relate deeply to the idea. He works alongside the builders to adapt his designs to the materials on hand. In my own work, I often source materials first, and then adapt my conceptual ideas to the materials I have at hand. I work with the materials, adapting my process and the finished outcome to what I have available, or what I can get my hands on, at the time of creating each piece of work. I believe this is what enchanted me about Wang’s work. Seeing multiples upon multiples, varied pieces of a whole, pieced together to create a large, cohesive unit, mimics the way that I work. The aesthetic, though different in material and scale, is related, like cousins. His works stand as large sculptures that speak to not only the place, but the people that walk through them.