The Venice Biennale has appointed architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu as Artistic Directors of the Architecture Department and curators of the 20th International Architecture Exhibition, scheduled to take place from 8 May to 21 November 2027.
Founders of Amateur Architecture Studio in 1997, the two architects are among the most influential voices in contemporary practice, thanks to an approach that integrates recycled materials, artisanal building techniques, local memory and contemporary engineering. Their work, deeply rooted in Chinese vernacular tradition, offers a concrete alternative to rapid, demolition-driven urban development, proposing an architectural language capable of bridging the divide between city and countryside and between the artificial and the natural.
Among their most notable works are the Ningbo Historic Museum, the Xiangshan Campus of the China Academy of Art — selected by the New York Times as one of the 25 most significant postwar buildings — Tiles Hill in Hangzhou, the regeneration of Wencun Village and the Fuyang Cultural Complex. Their research, presented in major institutions such as the MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, is grounded in the value of existing materials, the traces of everyday life and the construction site as a place of knowledge.
In their official statements, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu emphasised the need to bring architecture back to an authentic dimension, free from excessive conceptualisation and commercial pressures that risk producing superficial, ephemeral outcomes detached from reality. In a historical moment marked by material and cultural crises, they affirm the importance of simplicity and sincerity in design as a response to global transformations. With their appointment, the 2027 Architecture Biennale promises to explore more deeply the relationship between construction, memory, community and the future.
