Wang Shu

There has been much abuzz in the Sam Fox campus these last few days. We just finished our NAAB accreditation visit today, for example. This is a very major event, and the school began preparations over two years ago for this four day visit. The way it works is that architecture schools are accredited for degrees that they offer to be valid so that graduates can sit for licensing exams. Anyway, a small team of people made up of students, architects, professors, NAAB people come down, look through the school's documentation, student work, do interviews with students and staff etc and then make recommendations for areas of improvement and finally decide whether or not to recommend accreditation.

I'm pretty sure we passed, but its a pretty epic event in the life of the school every six years, and its the first time that the combined schools of Sam Fox has been accredited since the combining. So the faculty and administration especially have been running around all over the place to make sure everything is just right. So it goes.

The other exciting piece of news that architect Wang Shu was awarded the Pritzker prize... three days before he was scheduled to give a lecture here. (the Pritzker prize is widely seen as the preeminent award in architecture, not really for a building design as much as a body of work. It's a pretty big deal) I see it as somewhat political/cultural move on the part of the Pritzker committee, as they're awarding it to a Chinese architect (the first Pritzker to be won by a zhongguoren) but more importantly, they want to highlight the more reflective, culturally and historically influenced work he's doing in China.

It's critical regionalism, but that's really a big bucket. His work has elements of whimsy like an exterior stair/balcony which scurries up and down the face of the building, but there's also massive, sculptural elements, monumental angular forms, like his musuem in Ningbao. Personally, he kind of frames himself as a cultural rebel- his architecture degree was withdrawn from his university, and then he started his own architecture school, where he was the only faculty member. He did expand a bit and hired another teacher. Ai WeiWei, probably the most famous contemporary artist in China.

The lecture that he gave was packed. Over packed. People sitting in the aisles and on the floor of the stage, back of the room, out the door. It's strange to think that if not for this Pritzker, we would have seen not even half of the people. But a small group of people came to a certain conclusion and suddenly the president of the University has to make a short welcome speech.

The Chinese kids here were going nuts. Weng Shu came early to the campus and a friend of mine showed him around and acted as an unofficial translator. He's pretty chill, more than happy to pose for photos with the Chinese students who mobbed him. Seemed very amiable.

After the lecture, they swarmed the stage, trying to get more photos, while the faculty tried to get in on the scene and others were trying to get him out of there and over to the Studio Dinner. Saori and I were invited along by my friend and so we all drove over to Matt's apartment where the dinner was going to be held. Another friend of mine had left the lecture early to pick up the food. Earlier, she had told me how excited she was to be getting Pappy's BBQ. When I got there, it was House of India. I raised my eyebrows about this and she quietly told me that nobody had realized Weng Shu was vegetarian until the last minute.

Pappy's would have been better, but the Indian food was pretty good. The apartment was packed. Many other (Chinese) students had also decided to crash the party, although there was plenty of curry to go around. So it goes.