Now in their 17th year, the global WAN Awards are intended to celebrate outstanding architecture on an international scale. The awards opened for entries earlier this month and you have until 27 June to benefit from the discounted early bird entry rate. Every project entered in the WAN Awards is assessed by an expert panel of senior industry judges from across the world.
Founder of China based LUO studio Yujie Luo is also an architecture lecturer at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing. Yujie is committed to sustainable construction and using materials sparingly to create more universal spaces. He advocates the use of natural materials in construction, and strives to work out creative solutions to social problems. His firm’s recently completed projects include a stunning exhibition hall with a spiral wooden roof frame in Henan province and an arched timber bridge in Guangdong’s Gulou Waterfront which garnered a gold medal in the WAN global awards.
He believes the changing social and economic conditions in China are bringing new challenges to the architecture industry, such as decreasing project commissions and uncertainty around payment.
“These are huge challenges to architectural design practitioners, threatening their survival in the market,” he says.
He adds: “However, challenges and risks can bring new opportunities, and make the role of design professionals in refining lifestyles more important. The shrinking economy has also led to a more prudent market.”
Shaohua DI is the founding principal of PRAXiS d' ARCHITECTURE. She is the mentor of practice for Tianjin University’s graduate school of architecture. Her design adopts an ingenious and harmonious approach to integrate architecture and its surroundings based on her understandings of cultural and physical context. Shaohua strives to create extraordinary spatial experiences by using economic, eco-friendly and local materials and available means of construction.
She believes the biggest challenge facing the industry is to solve the critical issues of climate change, economic crisis and future pandemic preparation through design collaboration and technology, while still embedding poetic and artistic sensibilities to create architecture that is humane in a world of rapid digitalization.
Zhu Pei established Studio Zhu Pei in Beijing in 2005. He’s a visiting professor at Yale, Harvard and Columbia universities and the current dean of the School of Architecture at Central Academy of Fine Arts in China.
Zhu Pei’s works have been exhibited at locations including MoMA, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Kassel, Dresden State Art Museum, Sao Paulo Art Biennial and Harvard University.
Some of his latest projects include the Zijing International Conference Centre in Jiangxi, China, the Majiayao Ruins Museum and Observatory in Lintao, Gansu, China and the Yangliping Performing Arts Center in Dali, Yunnan, China.