Margaret Wang Memorial Lecture Fund Presents: Lecture and Dinner: An Evening With The Maestro - Pritzker Prize Laureate Wang Shu (Conducted in Putonghua with interpreter)

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to present the inaugural event of the Margaret Wang Memorial Lecture Fund – an evening with Maestro Professor Wang Shu.  As the first and only Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate from China, Professor Wang Shu was awarded the honour in 2012.  He is not only an architect, he is also an educator, philosopher, conservator, innovator and much more.

The numerous international awards presented to Professor Wang Shu over the decades are but a glimpse of his remarkable achievements in the world of architecture.  His dedication to preserving nature and building in harmony with the environment are reflected in the painstaking details of his designs and construction process.  While restorations are a key element incorporated in his build, Professor Wang Shu does not ever lose sight of the intent of the project.  His innovative use of local and/or original materials of the site brings to light traces of history that are seamlessly woven into modern architecture. 

It is our great privilege to have Professor Wang Shu and his collaborator Professor Lu Wen Yu as the distinguished speakers of the Margaret Wang Memorial Lecture Fund inaugural event.  The Fund was established to commemorate and honour the legacy of the Society’s Founder, Mrs. Margaret Wang.  We are most grateful to have Margaret’s husband, Professor Wang Gungwu, former Vice Chancellor of HKU, who will travel the distance from Singapore to celebrate Margaret’s devotion and vision. 

Please join us for an evening with Professor Wang Shu as we learn from his latest endeavours, and to have moments of in-depth conversations up-close with the maestro. The lecture title is The Vision of the Architecture.

Speaker
Wang Shu is the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. He is an architect and educator. He co-founded Amateur Architecture Studio with Lu Wenyu in 1997. Together they founded the architecture department at China Academy of Art (CAA) in 2003. He became the first dean of the CAA’s School of Architecture upon its establishment in 2007.

Together, Wang and Lu have focused on re-establishing a contemporary language for Chinese architecture, which is reflected in their built works such as the Ningbo Historic Museum, the renovation of Wencun Village, and the Fuyang Cultural Complex, among others. In 2021, their design of the Xiangshan Campus of CAA was one of the 25 Most Significant Works of Postwar Architecture as selected by the New York Times.

Wang has been a visiting professor and fellow at leading architectural institutions around the world, including MIT, UCL, the University of Hong Kong, and Tongji University. In 2011, he was named the Kenzo Tange Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). That same year, he was awarded the French Gold Medal of the Academy of Architecture. He has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World (Time, 2013), and was the recipient of the Gold Medal of Tau Sigma Delta in 2019. He is the Sin Wai-Kin Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities at the University of Hong Kong and currently serves as a juror for the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Photo credit:
https://arquitecturaviva.com/works/xiangshan-campus
www.wuyueart.com
Deseret News
Iwan Baan; https://www.wallpaper.com/fashion-beauty/baracuta-book
https://www.shine.cn/feature/art-culture/2207298598/