The plan for the Ningbo Historic Museum, for example, came to him one night when he could not sleep, he said. He got out of bed and started drawing in pencil: the structure, space sizes, entrance locations and other aspects.

“Then,” he said, “I drank tea.”

[full interview]

Of course, we already knew about the sleepness nights, but tea, as a post mythical-orgasmic-inspiration relaxant is a new one. Architects wanting to follow Chinese architect Wang Shu’s jump into the Pritzker Prize roll of honour will no doubt be stocking up large. Our own t-Leaf-T can be recommended, apparantly. I can’t see me dropping the Havana espresso fueled caffeine burst of nervous energy for a Pritzker Prize anytime soon though.

I guess the real news is the awarding of the prize to Wang Shu, but I find it hard to get excited by large projects in expanses of space, such as the Ningbo Historic Museum (which seems to be Wang’s signature building at this time), an accomplished work in the latest twist (literally in this case), of retro modernism. I do like his acknowledgement of ‘history’:

The museum, which includes recycled architectural materials from the area, “is one of those unique buildings that while striking in photos, is even more moving when experienced,” the jury said. “The museum is an urban icon, a well-tuned repository for history and a setting where the visitor comes first.”

In designing the Xingshan Campus of the China Academy of Art in his native Hangzhou, Mr. Wang also reused materials, covering the campus buildings with more than two million tiles from demolished traditional houses.

“Everywhere you can see, they don’t care about the materials,” Mr. Wang said in an interview. “They just want new buildings, they just want new things. I think the material is not just about materials. Inside it has the people’s experience, memory — many things inside. So I think it’s for an architect to do something about it.” [nytimes]

…but I don’t know, this does seem a bit trite given the finished ‘product, ala Ronchamp fenestration and City of Tomorrow siting, which will no doubt become car-parking in due course.

But the building, and Wang’s Library of Wenzheng College at the Suzhou University, does offer some nice moments (well… for the photographer at least…)

There are of course, many more interesting projects in Wang’s broader oeuvre, but they’re usually the ones that don’t get picked up upon in the glitzy press releases, such as the NYTimes (where the above quotes come from). I find this intriguing:

…and I’m not exactly sure what is going on here, but it seems interesting also:

So, what do you think?

Time for a cup of tea..?

Update: The material quoted above, drawn from a New York Times article, seems to have been lifted by NYTimes without attribution from a Mark Magazine (#19) interview (also publsihed at movingcities.org): Wang Shu: Local Hero [2008]. We have received notification from the author, Bert de Muynck, and have updated this post accordingly so that we are not party to dodgy NYTimes ethics – no not us! For more, see this movingcities.org explanation.
Incidentally – Mark Magazine magazine lloks like a useful publication, go check it out…