Lu Wenyu

Founded in 1997 by Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, Amateur Architecture Studio approaches architecture with a focus on the spontaneous aspects of daily life, asserting that design should remain an amateur activity and that life is always more important than architecture. In the context of China’s extensive professional design institutes and large-scale construction, the studio operates as a form of critique and resistance. As educators at China’s most prestigious art academy, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu have pursued a new school of architecture since 2001.

Over the past three decades, in response to China’s phenomenon of large-scale demolition and reconstruction, the studio has embraced cyclical construction to reconnect with indigenous building traditions and reestablish the link between local memory and architectural innovation. Beginning with projects such as the Ningbo History Museum, this approach combines conceptual rigor with concrete spatial solutions. Through parallel research into urban and rural construction, the studio integrates small-scale experiments into large public buildings, most notably at the Xiangshan Campus of the China Academy of Art.

Projects such as the National Archives of Publications and Culture in Hangzhou address the restoration of landscapes scarred by extensive development. The studio explores how traditional Chinese landscape painting, garden design, and architectural typologies—conceived in harmony with mountains and water—can be activated in contemporary contexts. Across all its work, Amateur Architecture Studio realizes a radical utopia of Chinese tradition once considered impossible, demonstrating how memory, culture, and innovation can coexist in the built environment.