China Academy of Art Xiangshan Central Campus

About this audio guide

This guide to the China Academy of Art's Xiangshan campus in Hangzhou follows architect Wang Shu's dare to build a major new campus in the early two thousands without buying a single new brick, while bulldozers across Zhejiang province were flattening old farmhouses by the thousand. It traces how he trucked in salvaged roof tiles and bricks by the millions, in twenty or more mismatched shapes and ages, then worked for months alongside local tile roofers and masons, with his partner Lu Wenyu, inventing a technique for turning that patchwork into load bearing walls as they went. Look closely at the walls around you for the different kilns and villages the tiles came from.