Wu Liangyong

In this Chinese name, the family name is Wu.
Wu Liangyong
吴良镛
Wu at the age of 24
Born (1922-05-07) 7 May 1922 (age 102)
Jiangning County, Jiangsu, Republic of China
Alma materNational Central University
Cranbrook Educational Community
AwardsOrdre des Arts et des Lettres (1999)
Prince Claus Award (2002)
Highest Science and Technology Award (2012)
Scientific career
FieldsArchitecture
InstitutionsTsinghua University
Doctoral advisorEero Saarinen
Other academic advisorsLiang Sicheng
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese吴良镛
Traditional Chinese吳良鏞
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinWú Liángyōng

Wu Liangyong (Chinese: 吴良镛, born 7 May 1922) is a Chinese architect and urban planner. He was a former professor in urban planning, architecture, and design. In preparation to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he was leading the team that studied the buildings of the games.[1] He is considered the most influential architect and urban planner in China.[2]

Life

Wu was born in Nanjing on 7 May 1922. In 1944, he obtained a bachelor's degree in architecture at the National Central University (now Nanjing University) in Chongqing, and a master's degree at the American Guangxi Art Academy.[3] He also studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in the United States.[2] Together with professor Liang Sicheng, he founded the Faculty of Architecture on the Tsinghua University in 1946, where he focused on urban planning, architecture, and design. All together he taught fifty years at Tsinghua University.[1][4]

Next to his professorate, Wu carried out different administrative functions. He was vice-president of the International Union of Architects and of the Architecture Society of China. Furthermore, he was chairman of the World Society for the Science of Human Settlements and of the Urban Planning Society of China.[1]

His development of the Ju'er Hutong in Beijing is seen as state of the art. Furthermore, he developed the new library of Beijing and the enlargement of Tiananmen Square, and redeveloped Guilin and the Central Art and Design Academy of the Confucius Institute. In preparation to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Wu was leading the team that studied the buildings of the games.[1]

Wu received a number of awards. He was the first to win the Award for Scientific and Technological Progress by the State Education Commission. In 1993, he won a World Habitat Award of the United Nations for his contribution to the house-building project of Ju'er Hutong in Beijing. In 1995, he won the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize and in 1996 the UIA Architectural Education Prize of the International Union of Architects. Wu was honored with a Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands in 2002. The jury praised his architectonic work, as well as his compilation of a ten-volume encyclopedia of regional architectures around the world.[1][4][5]

Wu turned 100 in May 2022.[6]

Bibliography (selection)

  • 1989: General Theory of Architecture
  • 1991: The Second Report on the Rural and Urban Spatial Development Planning Study for the Capital Region, ISBN 978-7302139928
  • 1999: Rehabilitating the Old City of Beijing: A Project in the Ju'Er Hutong Neighbourhood, ISBN 978-0774807265
  • 2014: Integrated Architecture (English-Italian Translation of General Theory of Architecture), ISBN 9788868121433. Nuova Cultura, [1] Archived 2014-10-28 at the Wayback Machine

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Tsinghua University, "biography". Archived from the original on November 22, 2008. Retrieved February 3, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ a b Ian Johnson (6 February 2015). "China's Fog Weighs Heavily on Shoulders of Its Premier Architect". New York Times.
  3. ^ National Central University renamed Nanjing University in 1949 and reinstated in Taiwan in 1962. The architecture department became part of Nanjing Institute of Technology (now Southeast University) in 1952.
  4. ^ a b China Vitae, biography
  5. ^ Prince Claus Fund, profile[permanent dead link‍]
  6. ^ Yuan, Jie (30 May 2022). "百岁"两院院士"吴良镛：面对未来无限可能，我仍充满期待" [Centenarian "Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences" Wu Liangyong: Facing the infinite possibilities of the future, I am still full of expectations]. The Paper (in Chinese). Retrieved 26 November 2022.