Wu Lusheng (; born 1 August 1930) is a Chinese architect and a professor of Tongji University. In 2004, she was named by the Ministry of Construction of China as a "National Master of Engineering and Design". Over a career spanning more than 50 years, she collaborated with her husband

Dai Fudong Dai Fudong (; 25 April 1928 – 25 February 2018) was a Chinese architect. He was a lifelong professor of Tongji University and the founding director of the university's Institute of High-tech Building Technology. He was elected an academician of ...

on about 100 projects.

Early life

Wu was born on 1 August 1930 in Lujiang County,

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

, Republic of China. The prominent physicist

Yan Jici Yan Jici (; 23 January 1901 – 2 November 1996), also commonly known as Ny Tsi-ze, was a Chinese physicist and politician who is considered a founder of modern physics in China. He was a founding member of Academia Sinica in 1948 and of the Chi ...

was her godfather. After graduating from the High School of National Central University in 1948, she was admitted to the university's architecture school (now

Southeast University School of Architecture The Southeast University School of Architecture (SEU Arch, ) is one of the professional schools of Southeast University in Nanjing, China. Founded in 1927, SEU School of Architecture is the oldest school of architecture in China and one of the mos ...

), earning her bachelor's degree in 1952.

Career

In 1952, Wu became a faculty member at the Department of Architecture of Tongji University in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, her classmate at National Central University, was also assigned to Tongji, and they married the following year. In 1958, Wu, Dai, and their colleague Fu Xinqi were appointed co-designers of the Meiling () Guesthouse at the East Lake in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

. Half way through the project, they were invited to watch a show with

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

, and were told that the guesthouse was Mao's personal villa in Wuhan. Mao spent much of his later years at Meiling. Wu and Dai did not see the completed building until 1978, when it was opened to the public as a tourist attraction after Mao's death. After 1972, she worked for the Institute of Architectural Design and Research of Tongji University. Wu and her husband collaborated on nearly 100 projects. They specialized in small and medium-sized buildings including offices, hotels, and university buildings. They emphasized the use of local materials, strove to utilize limited resources for the maximum benefit, and focused on human comfort and artistic value. In an interview with Chinese media, Wu stated that Dai mainly focused on the overall design, and she on the detailed execution. In 1988, Wu and Dai designed the architecture school of Tongji University. At the time Chinese universities were poorly financed; they were given a budget of only US$570,000 for the building. The building was well received, and they were subsequently commissioned to design the university's Run Run Shaw Building and the Graduate School Building. In 1992–1993, Wu and Dai designed the Big Dipper Mountain Village, a small hotel on the Shandong Peninsula with seven buildings. The buildings had modern interiors, but externally they were covered with local stones and roofs were covered with seaweed, a material used by local farmers for the roofs of their houses, and the pathways were paved with local pebbles with grass planted among them. Their design minimized the cost while giving the hotel a distinct local flavour. They also applied the same design philosophy to the International Hotel in

Zunhua Zunhua () is a county-level city in the northeast of Hebei province, China, bordering Tianjin to the west. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Tangshan. Historic sites include the Eastern Qing Tombs (Qing Dongling). Ad ...

. Wu has been awarded 12 national, ministerial, and municipal prizes for her designs. In May 2004, she was named by the Ministry of Construction of China as a "National Master of Engineering and Design".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Lusheng 1930 births Living people People from Lujiang County National Central University alumni Southeast University alumni Academic staff of Tongji University Chinese women architects 20th-century Chinese architects 21st-century Chinese architects