Zigeng Wang is the founder and principal architect of Pills (Beijing), a studio focusing on contemporary spatial culture through practice and research. He is also a lecturer of architecture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing.
Pills’ interests concentrate on: capital and spatial politics, environmental control and philosophy of technology, globalization and infrastructure, contemporary media culture and production-consumption relationships, video/film and media technology. They aim to re-define issues of contemporary urban and architecture from a more critical perspective, observe and intervene contemporary spatial culture through multiple ways, deeply inquire into the mechanism of spatial production, and try to depict the contemporary world view and human conditions. Pills’ works include critical practices such as: architecture and interior design, urban design and landscape design, art installation, curation and architectural programming, independent writing and publication.
Wang received first prize for the Fairy Tales 2015 International Architecture Competition and first prize for Architecture Design Category by China Architecture Design & Research Group, the Excellence Award Annual National Architectural Design Competition for University Students four times, etc.
Wang has served as architecture counselor of Jiang Wen’s film Hidden Man. He was invited to participate in the design team for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 and the design of the parade float for the 70th anniversary of National Day. He also serves as the chief curator of Steel Home Still exhibition of urban regeneration achievements of Shougang industrial heritage park in Venice.
Wang’s works have been displayed during major domestic and international exhibitions such as the Venice Architecture Biennale (2008), When Architecture Tells a Story exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington DC (2016), Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (2017); 7th and 8th Bi-City Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism/ Architecture (2017, 2019), the youth curator plan of Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (2017), Hyundai Blue Prize exhibition in Beijing Hyundai culture center (2017), Infrastructural Territory exhibition in OCAT Shanghai (2018), and Shenzhen Pingshan China Contemporary Building Installation Image exhibition (2019).
Wang received a master degree in architecture from Princeton University, where he was awarded full enrollment scholarship. He has taught at Beijing Film Academy as a lecturer and Tsinghua University as a visiting professor and at many schools and institutions such as Syracuse University, Tongji University, etc.
