PILLS is a Beijing-based interdisciplinary studio founded by Zigeng Wang in 2017. Their work focuses on contemporary spatial culture. They are interested in the politics of capital and space, environmental control and the philosophy of technology, globalization and infrastructure, contemporary media culture and production-consumption relations, and film and media technologies. They seek to redefine contemporary urban and architectural issues with critical approaches, influence contemporary culture with multiple methods of observation, delve deeper into the mechanisms of spatial productions, and more clearly represent the image of the contemporary world and human conditions.
Their work encompasses critical practices such as architecture, interior design, urban and landscape design, installation art, curating, architectural programming, and independent writing and publishing. From art installations to public buildings, from cultural interventions to commercial development, PILLS actively offers a variety of urban and architectural design services and promotes contemporary cultural production through multiple media.
PILLS has been widely recognized for its architectural and urban research projects. Exhibitions that have featured PILLS's works include the Venice Architectural Biennale, Lisbon Triennale, Oslo Triennale, Seoul Biennale, Helsinki Design Week, Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architect (Shenzhen), Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, Shanghai PSA Emerging Curation Project, China Contemporary Architecture and lmage Exhibition, Hyundai Motor studio Beijing “Drfiting” Exhibition(Hyundai Blue Prize), Get It Louder, and Pingshan Art Museum “Nine-Tired Pagoda”, Wind H “The Methodology of the New Generation”. PILLS has been honored with numerous awards, including the first prize of FairyTale Competition, first prize of Jacques Rougerie Competition, Academic Committee Grand Award of Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism / Architect, Organizing Committee Award of Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism / Architect.
Zigeng Wang is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Architecture, Director of Media and Exhibition at Central Academy of Fine Arts. He obtained his Master of Architecture at Princeton University and he is Founder and Principal Architect of PILLS. He was one of the Chief Curators of the 9th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. He was also a Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture at Syracuse University, Lecturer at School of Fine Art, Beijing Film Academy and an external tutor at School of Architecture, Tsinghua University. His fields of research include Environmental Technology, Architecture Exhibition, Architectural Media, and Narration.
Zigeng served as the architectural history consultant in the director team for the film Hidden Man by Wen Jiang. His curatorial and exhibition design practices include the 9th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen), renovation of Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning, Shenzhen Fisheries Planning and Development Construction Exhibition. He also led the curation and planning for Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base City Showroom, etc.
He won the Organization Committee Award of the 9th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen), the Academic Committee Award of the 8th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen), the First Prize in the FAIRYTALES 2015 International Architecture Competition. He also won the Second Prize for Scheme Design International Competition for Architectural Design of Shenzhen Institute of Design and Innovation. Zigeng’s works have been exhibited in various important occasions including the Venice Architecture Biennale, the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., the 2019 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen), the National Art Exhibition, the Exhibition of Architecture Installation and Image in Contemporary China, the Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, the Exhibition at Hyundai Motor Studio Beijing, and the PSFO Solo Exhibition at Nine-Tiered Pagoda. His works have been collected by, among others, the Pingshan Art Museum in Shenzhen, the Wind H Art Center, and the X Museum. In addition, Zigeng is a member of research team for the Chinese Architecture among the National Social Science (20ZD11) Theory and Practice Division funded projects in CAFA, and the Principal Investigator for the Research of Contemporary Architecture Exhibition and Architecture Curation, which is the Major Independent Project in the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He has also published multiple books in collaboration with other authors. His works and articles have been published in numerous journals and media outlets, both domestic and abroad.
