Per reporter: Wu Linjing Per editor: Liu Yanmei
In the past few decades, land urbanization has advanced rapidly, and cities have been transformed, both rapidly building and demolishing. In the eyes of outsiders, it was really a good era for architects to "pick up money".
Wang Shu was once confused - the city of his childhood was gone, the basis of memory was gone, and the relics of history were gone, so what was the future that Chinese wanted? What is the relationship with one's own history and culture? Under the high-rise buildings, is there any value in the small daily life of ordinary people?
After a deep silence, he found the answer in the "ruins", where there are growing details that represent the authenticity of daily life, and there is something called "time".
So he picked up the "ruins" and turned them into modern buildings, such as the Xiangshan Campus of the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts and the Ningbo Museum. Since 2000, he has also enjoyed taking students from the School of Architecture of the China Academy of Art to the ruins of the city demolition to teach the first lesson in architecture, looking for the most essential things of modern architecture.
In 2012, Wang Shu won the Pritzker Prize, and Time magazine in the United States gave him an evaluation that the future of Chinese architecture has not abandoned its past.
Nowadays, urban development is becoming increasingly saturated, and urban renewal and stock transformation are setting off a new wave. Speaking of this, Wang Shu told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that continuing the history of the city and preserving the way of life is the most important, "the most afraid of the name of renewal, for business and tourism, all the local residents will be emptied."
<h2>Architecture with a sense of time</h2>
The Ningbo Museum is Wang Shu's largest project in Ningbo and can be regarded as a "totem-level" building. When it comes to how to make a time-sensitive building, Wang Shu mentioned this award-winning work.
Image source: Ningbo Museum
"We collected 29 old materials for the demolition of 29 half-villages." Abandoned green bricks, red bricks, keel bricks, tiles, cylinders, as well as bricks and tiles from the Ming and Qing dynasties, and even ancient bricks from the Han and Jin dynasties, were used in the construction of the Ningbo Museum. Not a small number of embellishments, but as the main material of the building, it is used in large quantities. The tile wall and the modern concrete wall together form a museum façade of more than 20,000 square meters.
After opening, the museum welcomed tens of thousands of visitors. Wang Shu met an old lady who "visited 4 times in 3 months, and each time she came without looking at the exhibition but only at the building."
Later, bird's nests were built in the gaps between the bricks and tiles of the outer wall, and plants grew on the walls, and life and time flowed like this.
If you know more about Wang Shu's architectural works, you will know that whether it is building an art museum, a museum or a school, he chooses very simple and simple materials, no granite, no stainless steel, no sparkling. His building materials have "roots", which carry traces of a city, generations, and a way of life.
"The current situation in Chinese cities today is that almost all of them have undergone systematic demolition, almost all of them have undergone systematic so-called planning, and almost all of them have erased the details of growth that represent the authenticity of daily life." Building materials are one of the carriers that he believes can allow cities to find details of growth, and he even calls some modern buildings "timeless garbage".
<h2>Continue your lifestyle</h2>
But building materials take a back seat compared to the continuation of lifestyles.
In his spare time, Wang Shu likes to "wander" the old streets outside his work room in Hangzhou, and Surabaya Lane is one of them.
The drains of the eaves of each house are exposed for easy maintenance, and the sound of water flowing can be heard when it rains.
A corner, I met the residents set up outside the wash basin outside the house, from the courtyard door to look inside, you can see the mailbox shared by several families, "this is the trace of the courtyard people living together, this openness, publicity is the way of living that high-rise apartments can not achieve."
Because it belongs to different construction stages, at the junction of the wall and the wall, there are three different wall surfaces, and the stitching of materials is unabashedly displayed.
Between wanderings, Wang Shu used his mobile phone to photograph the details of residents' lives while looking for inspiration for design.
During the interview, Wang Shu stressed that through the layout of buildings and facilities, the lifestyle is continued, so as to ensure the continuity of the historical memory of this place.
In 2017, Wang Shu challenged the first farm housing project, Wencun, Dongqiao Town, Fuyang District, Hangzhou.
Image source: Hangzhou release
This small village, located in the transition zone between mountains and plains, has more than 40 houses from the Ming, Qing and Republic of China periods, built along the creek. Wang Shu went to help them build new villages and renovate old villages, 14 buildings of 24 farmhouses, from planning to landing, it took 3 years.
There is a reason for taking over this project, Wang Shu is afraid that the construction of high-rise bungalows in the city will destroy these ancient villages in Jiangnan, and he hopes that the newly transformed Wencun will be like a natural growth on the old village.
Wang Shu "imitated" the streets of Wencun in the past, built sunken laundry terraces, and made the stone railing countertops wide. Later, when he went to Wencun again, he saw that the terrace was used by the villagers to wash clothes frequently, and the railing countertop was used to dry vegetables, "I was very satisfied with our transformation, and after the change, I found that the villagers' lives continued to exist as if they had not changed." Wang Shu said, "I just think I did the right thing." It doesn't matter if it's not tacky, the most important thing is to respect life. ”
Daily economic news