Ai Weiwei. Art | Architecture

Since constructing his own studio in 1999, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has designed or collaborated with other architects on a wide range of architectural projects. These collaborations were the subject of Ai Weiwei: Art/Architecture, a 2011 exhibition at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria, which this catalogue accompanies. A highlight of this overview is the widely celebrated "Bird´s Nest" Beijing National Stadium, a collaboration between Ai and the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron that was constructed for the 2008 Olympic Games. Another feature is a new work based on a project titled "Ordos 10" for which Ai invited 100 young architectural firms worldwide to design single-family houses for Ordos City in Inner Mongolia. An essay in the catalogue examines the role of architecture in relation to Ai´s political activities, an issue of particular relevance since his arrest and conditional release in 2011.