Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu for 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale

An asymmetrical concrete structure that has many windows of different sizes peppered throughout the structure, the work of Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu — Ningbo Historic Museum (2008), by architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu’s Hangzhou-based Amateur Architecture Studio, featured in the 2022 book by publisher Gestalten, *Beauty and the East*

(Image credit: Iwan Baan, Beauty and the East, Gestalten)

Chinese architecture duo Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, founders of Hangzhou-based Amateur Architecture Studio, have just been appointed the curators of the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale. Running their joint practice since 1997, as well as teaching, the two architects are no strangers to the biennale, having taken part in the main show in 2006, 2010 (when they received the Special Mention for their project 'Decay of a Dome') and 2016.

Now, the pair will have the opportunity to form their own iteration of the world's biggest architecture show – following up on the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale curated by Lesley Lokko, and just as the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale curated by Carlo Ratti drew to a close.

portrait of architects Weng Shu and Lu Wenyu, in front of bookshelves, at the announcement of them being curators for the 2027 venice architecture biennale — Weng Shu and Lu Wenyu

Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu: the next 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale curators

Amateur Architecture Studio is prolific. Past works include the Ningbo Historic Museum, the Xiangshan Campus of China Academy of Art, the Tiles Hill in Hangzhou, the renovation of Wencun Village, the National Archives of Publications and Culture in Hangzhou, the Preservation and Renovation of Southern Song Imperial Street, the Lin’An Historic Museum, and the Xi'an Opera House and Concert Hall. Wang Shu also won the Pritzker Prize in 2012 and served as a judge for the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2013.

Lin&rsquo;an Museum in China — Lin’an Museum in China

‘In the face of the real crisis of this world, insisting on a simple and true concept and method of architecture has a special value’
Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, curators of the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale

Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu said: 'We are very honoured to be the artistic directors of the Architecture Department and Curators of the 20th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2027 at the invitation of president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. And thanks to the board of directors of La Biennale di Venezia for the trust in us. We will try our best to meet this big challenge.

‘In the current world, the rapid and multiple changes in architecture are more a phenomenon of appearance, the result of excessive conceptualisation or marked commercialisation,’ the architects continued.

Lin'an Museum aerial view — Lin’an Museum in China

'Conceptual experiments driven to extremes are often divorced from reality, and over-commercialisation tends to [make for] merely popular and short-lived [projects]. [There is a] breaking away from the connection with the real place. It will lead to the death of architecture. Architecture becomes a kind of delusional expression about the future.

'For this reason, in the face of the real crisis of this world, insisting on a simple and true concept and method of architecture has a special value. We will strive to present this value and exploration with the greatest sincerity for a better reality and future.'

The 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale will take place at the Giardini and Arsenale sites from 8 May to 21 November 2027

labiennale.org

TOPICS

Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).