Chinese architect Wang Shu wins prestigious Pritzker Prize

Washington: Wang Shu, a 48-year-old Chinese architect has received this year’s prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. Wang, who is based in Hangzhou, west of Shanghai, and runs a firm with his wife, Lu Wenyu, has a relatively low profile on the international architecture scene. He was a visiting professor at Harvard last year, but has never designed a building outside China, and describes himself as “just a local architect,” The Los Angeles Times reports. Wang’s projects often include recycled bricks or roofing tiles salvaged from older buildings razed to make way for new construction. Last year Portugal’s Eduardo Souto de Moura won the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s most prestigious award by the Hyatt Foundation. Wang is not the first Chinese-born architect to win the Pritzker. I.M. Pei, the 1983 laureate, was born in Guangzhou in 1917, but Pei was firmly established as a US based architect when he was honored. ANI