Building up

Thomas Jay Pritzker of the Hyatt business empire asks students of a Chinese icon of higher education to be curious, Deng Zhangyu reports. 

Thomas Jay Pritzker, chairman of the Hyatt Foundation, which established the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1979, started his collaboration with Tsinghua University in 2011 on a program to enable students to learn from the world's leading architects. The program was launched to cultivate Chinese architects.

Wang Shu, the founder of Hangzhou-based Amateur Architecture Studio, won the field's top honor in 2012, becoming the first Chinese to get the Pritzker Prize.

Pritzker says he is glad to see the influence his family-sponsored award has had on Chinese architects and how they now have a "serious voice" internationally.

"It's very exciting to see young Chinese architects designing buildings not just in China but around the world, " Pritzker, a US billionaire and philanthropist, said in Beijing on Oct 17, when he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Tsinghua.

Pritzker, 68, is among more than two-dozen influential scholars, scientists and entrepreneurs, such as Bill Gates, to have been conferred the honorary degree by the university over the years.

Through the Pritzker-Tsinghua Fellowship, students of the school of architecture at the top Chinese university are able to get internships at the studios of Pritzker Prize-winning architects.

While some from the university lacked confidence in the country's architects earlier, says Pritzker, more Chinese architects are now being recognized on the international stage for their quality building designs. He is planning to deepen his ties with Tsinghua by collaborating with the university in other fields, too.

"It's to hear what they need and then try and see how we can help," he says of future projects.