Pills Architects

PILLS is an inter-disciplinary studio, whose works focus on contemporary spatial culture. We are interested in capital and spatial politics, environmental control and philosophy of technology, globalization and infrastructure, contemporary media culture and production-consumption relations, film and media technologies. We hope to redefine contemporary urban and architectural issues with critical approaches, to influence contemporary culture with multiple observational methods, to discuss the mechanism behind spatial productions in further depth, and to depict the contemporary world picture and human conditions in greater clarity.

Our works include critical practices such as: Architecture, lnterior Design, Urban and Landscape Design, Art Installation, Curation, Architecture Programming, and Independent Writing and Publication. From art installations to public buildings, from cultural intervention to commercial development, PILLS actively provides a variety of urban and architectural design services and motivates 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 Expo 2025 Osaka, 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 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 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 INTERIOR DESIGN Best of Year Award, the IIDA Best of Asia Pacific Design Award (Category Winner), the ADC Annual Awards (Studio of the Year, Category Winner, and Gold Cube), the London Design Awards (Platinum Award – highest honor), the MUSE Design Awards (Platinum Award – highest honor), the Second Prize in the Norman Foster Foundation's "Kharkiv Housing Challenge Competition," the First Prize in the FAIRYTALES 2015 International Architecture Competition, the First Prize in the Jacques Rougerie Competition, the Second Prize in the International Competition for the Design of Shenzhen Institute of Design and Innovation, and the Jin Shangyi Young Faculty Teaching Excellence Award from the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Founder and Principal Architect
Zigeng Wang

Zigeng Wang is an architect, artist, and curator. He is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Architecture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). He obtained his Master of Architecture at Princeton University and is Founder and Principal Architect of PILLS. He served as Curator of the Expert Team and Lead Exhibition Consultant for the China Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Lead Curator of the Special Section in the main exhibition of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, and an exhibiting artist in the China Pavilion. He was one of the Chief Curators and a member of the Academic Committee of the 9th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen). He is a member of the Public Art Committee of the Architectural Society of China, a member of the National Folk Culture Innovation and Promotion Committee of the China Cultural Center Association, and a member of the Public Art and Public Space Design Committee of the Beijing Society of Urban Planning. He has served as a jury member for the Art Directors Club (ADC) Annual Awards. 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 a member of the design team for the 70th National Day Parade floats and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2022 Winter Olympics. He was the architectural consultant in the director team for the film Hidden Man by Wen Jiang. His curatorial and design practices include the China Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, 2025 ART021 BEIJING “KunstKammer” Special Exhibition, the Shenzhen Public Architecture Achievement Exhibition 2024, the 9th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen), the Shougang Centennial Achievement Exhibition at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, the Taikang Group Exhibition Hall, the Mixc Xi'an Museum, the Wanbo New City Urban Exhibition Hall, the solo exhibition of Zheng Chongbin for the "Nine-Tiered Pagoda" series, the solo exhibition "It is the Sea, It is the Dune" by Jian'an Wu, the renovation of the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning, Shenzhen Fisheries Planning and Development Construction Exhibition, and the 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 INTERIOR DESIGN Best of Year Award, the IIDA Best of Asia Pacific Design Award (Category Winner), the ADC Annual Awards (Studio of the Year, Category Winner, and Gold Cube), the London Design Awards (Platinum Award – highest honor), the MUSE Design Awards (Platinum Award – highest honor), the Second Prize in the Norman Foster Foundation's "Kharkiv Housing Challenge Competition," the First Prize in the FAIRYTALES 2015 International Architecture Competition, the First Prize in the Jacques Rougerie Competition, the Second Prize in the International Competition for the Design of Shenzhen Institute of Design and Innovation, and the Jin Shangyi Young Faculty Teaching Excellence Award from the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

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 Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning, 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.