Amateur architecture

"I design a house instead of a building. The house is the amateur architecture approach to the infinitely spontaneous order.

Built spontaneously, illegally and temporarily, amateur architecture is equal to professional architecture. But amateur architecture is just not significant.

One problem of professional architecture is, that it thinks too much of a building. A house, which is close to our simple and trivial life, is more fundamental than architecture. Before becoming an architect, I was only a literati. Architecture is part time work to me. For one place, humanity is more important than architecture while simple handicraft is more important than technology.

The attitude of amateur architecture, - though first of all being an attitude towards a critical experimental building process -, can have more entire and fundamental meaning than professional architecture. For me, any building activity without comprehensive thoughtfulness will be insignificant."

Wang Shu arkitekto Txinatarraren hitzak doguz, bere arkitekturari buruz mintzatzen. Aurtengo Arkitekturako Pritzker sariduna dogu Wang Shu, bere emaztea Lu Wenyu-rekin batera Amateur Architecture Studio estudioan lan egiten daualarik. Nahiz eta bera izan saritu bakarra Pritzker familia judutarraren sari honekin, estudioaren izaera bera saritua izan dela esan daikegu. Bere izaera lokala, giza eskalakoa, kulturala eta espontaneoak bereizten dau arkitekto honi Txinako arkitektura garaikidearen esparruan. Bere obrak (eta egikaritzak) bere herrialdearen adierazgarri bilakatzen ari dan arkitektura brutalista, eskala izugarrizkoa, hotza eta kontrolgabeari kritika egiten deutso; sari hau bera ere kritika baten moduan hartu geinke: arkitektura txinatar eskalaz-kanpokoa, deskontextualizatua eta zapalkorrari kritika alegia.

http://www.chinese-architects.com/en/amateur/en/

Hyatt fundazioaren arkitektura sariaren epaimahaiak honako ideiak nabarmentzen dabez estudioari buruz:

Wang Shu and his wife, Lu Wenyu, founded Amateur Architecture Studio in 1997 in Hangzhou, China. The office name references the approach an amateur builder takes—one based on spontaneity, craft skills and cultural traditions. Wang Shu spent a number of years working on building sites to learn traditional skills. The firm utilizes his knowledge of everyday techniques to adapt and transform materials for contemporary projects. This unique combination of traditional understanding, experimental building tactics and intensive research defines the basis for the studio’s architectural projects.

The studio takes a critical view of the architecture profession’s part in the demolition and destruction of large urban areas. At the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale, Amateur Architecture Studio expressed views of on-going demolitions in “Tiled Garden,” an installation made from 66,000 recycled tiles salvaged from demolition sites. Rather than looking toward the West for inspiration, as many of Shu’s contemporaries do, his work is rooted in the context of Chinese history and culture.

Wang Shu has often explained in lectures and interviews that “to me architecture is spontaneous for the simple reason that architecture is a matter of everyday life. When I say that I build a ‘house’ instead of a ‘building’, I am thinking of something that is closer to life, everyday life. When I named my studio ‘Amateur Architecture’, it was to emphasize the spontaneous and experimental aspects of my work, as opposed to being ‘official and monumental’." 

 http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/2012