Document No. 86–Wang Shu Wants to Kill All The Icons

Ceramic House, 2003-2006, Jinhua, China

When architect Wang Shu was awarded the Pritzker Prize earlier this year, he became the first Chinese citizen to receive the profession’s highest honor. However, the name that he and his wife, Lu Wenyu, have given their Hangzhou-based firm—Amateur Architecture Studio—signals their rejection of China’s architectural mainstream and its propensity for mega-developments and flashy, iconic [...]

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Document No. 25—Marvels from the Mist

PorroRoofsDance

The National Art Schools may be the most famous, albeit unfinished, architectural legacy of the Cuban Revolution. Envisioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in 1961, the 5-building complex was built with a surge of collective optimism in an ideal setting at Cuba’s formerly luxurious (and exclusive) Country Club Park.

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