School of architecture

School Notes: School of Architecture
January/February 2013

Exploring Berlin’s urban history

A symposium at the School of Architecture February 14–16 will examine critical moments in the history of Berlin since 1945. The city was the capital of the Third Reich during World War II, then a divided enclave within the Soviet zone of Germany, and is now capital of a reunited nation. Every aspect of Berlin’s cultural, artistic, and architectural life reflects the political conflicts of the twentieth century that made it a laboratory of architectural and urban experimentation. The international roster of participants in Achtung: Berlin comes from diverse fields of architectural history and practice as well as politics.

Pritzker winners on campus

Public lectures at the School of Architecture this semester will bring to campus a dozen outstanding practitioners and theoreticians, including two Pritzker Prize winners: current laureate Wang Shu and Zaha Hadid.

Wang Shu, professor and head of Hangzhou’s Architecture School at China Academy of Art, founded Amateur Architecture Studio in 1997 in Hangzhou with his wife Lu Wenyu. Known for its dedication to spontaneity, craftsmanship, and cultural traditions, the firm has built the Vertical Courtyard Apartments (2007), Ningbo History Museum (2008), and Exhibition Hall of the Imperial Street of Southern Song Dynasty (2009), among other projects. Hadid, the Lord Norman Foster Visiting Professor in Architectural Design at Yale this semester, won the Pritzker Prize in 2004. Her talk, “Zaha Hadid—Recent and Ongoing Work,” coincides with the school’s open house.

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