There's no doubt that the awarding of the Pritzker Prize this week to Chinese architect Wang Shu was based as much on its symbolism as for personal achievement. Jiayang Fan looks at what the announcement's reception in China has been.
To read Thomas Pritzker's prize announcement makes clear the symbolic intent of awarding the highest prize in architecture to a Chinese-based practitioner for the first time:
"The fact that an architect from China has been selected by the jury represents a significant step in acknowledging the role that China will play in the development of architectural ideals...China's unprecedented opportunities for urban planning and design will want to be in harmony with both its long and unique traditions of the past and with its future needs for sustainable development."
Whatever the intended message to China, Fan notes that the award has, "inspired equal parts bafflement and skepticism in the land of its honoree."
In comparing the country's reaction to the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000 to Gao Xingjian, Fan sees similarities. "The ambivalence surrounding the international recognition of two artists with such different profiles-Gao was an exiled dissident writing from abroad, Wang lives and works in China-speaks less about their art than it does about a pervasive cultural anxiety surrounding Chinese artists. In other words, the doubt has little to do with Wang's work but rather his celebration by the West-a West that, for better or worse, casts a continual and critical eye on both the country's human-rights record and its brisk pace of urbanization."
FULL STORY: Prickly Pritzker: China’s Newly Crowned Architect

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

Adaptive Reuse Will Create Housing in a Suburban Texas Strip Mall
A developer is reimagining a strip mall property as a mixed-use complex with housing and retail.

Study: Anti-Homelessness Laws Don’t Work
Research shows that punitive measures that criminalized unhoused people don’t help reduce homelessness.

In U.S., Urban Gondolas Face Uphill Battle
Cities in Latin America and Europe have embraced aerial transitways — AKA gondolas — as sustainable, convenient urban transport, especially in tricky geographies. American cities have yet to catch up.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
Custer County Colorado
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont