A 80-year-old Chinese architect was pronounced an "urban hero" Friday by the Dutch Embassy and awarded 25,000 euros (US$24,500).
Wu Liangyong, a renowned architect at Tsinghua University in Beijing, was presented the 2002 Prince Claus Award by the embassy in Beijing.
"In a world where traditional architectural patterns are being threatened by economic interests, Professor Wu endeavours to protect traditional living environments," said Philip de Heer, the Dutch ambassador to China.
"So we put the check into his pocket."
Wu is director of the Institute of Architectural and Urban Studies at Tsinghua University. As an architect, urban planner and teacher, he has played a significant role in China over the last several decades.
Born in 1922, he received his architectural degree from the National Central University in Chongqing in Southwest China in 1948.
In 1949 he went to the United States where he studied with the great architect Eliel Saarinen at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. In 1951 he returned to China and began teaching in the Department of Architecture at Tsinghua University.
One of Wu's masterpieces was his design of Ju'er Hutong in the heart of Beijing in the late 1980s.
Amid blockades of residential buildings, Wu re-invented courtyards with dark roofs and white walls.
He has focused on preserving and developing traditional Chinese habitats amid rapid urban construction, said Wu at the award ceremony.
"To protect tradition is arduous work that demands the co-operation of people in all fields," he added.
Heer said: "Wu made generations of Chinese architects aware not only of the new architectural spirit that was taking root elsewhere in the world, but also of the sublime beauty an