YEARBOOK 2018 - 2019 | XJTLU DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

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The research strategy of the Department of Architecture is focused on
three research areas:
History, Theory and Heritage
History, theory and heritage are fields of expertise of increasing
importance in contemporary China. In the context of profound
economic and social transformation, focus on the relationship between
modernisation and tradition has taken centre stage. This applies in
particular to the Suzhou region, where a number of significant historical
sites and artefacts are located.
2018-2019 YEARBOOK Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Department of Architecture 西 交 利 物 浦 大 学 建 筑 系
RESEARCH
Our staff possess strong and diversified backgrounds in the history
and theory of architecture and building heritage, the Department of
Architecture is ideally placed to engage in studies and research on these
subject matters. The history, theory and heritage research area covers a
variety of fields of interest, including history and theory of architecture,
urban history, landscape history, building heritage, cultural and material
history, and industrial heritage.
Computational Design and Fabrication
Digitally aided design and construction are key areas in which the
Chinese building industry has potential for development and a need for
innovation. These areas have only recently found significant recognition
amongst Chinese universities.
Strengths of the Department of Architecture’s academic staff, the recent
establishment of XJTLU’s Research Institute on Industrial Design and
3D Printing, and emerging relationships with related local industry offer
our Department an opportunity to assume a position of leadership in
this field.
Urban Ecologies
To address the challenges of contemporary urban environments
creative solutions are needed. This applies in particular to China, where
cities currently face the challenges of enormous transformations at
an unprecedented pace. Within this context, urban ecologies seeks to
research the changing nature of the urbanising world; to link questions
of human interactions within developing cities to the political, social
and cultural and environmental discourse; to explore and critique the
sustainability and liveability of contemporary urbanism.
Initiated by XJTLU’s Department of Architecture, the urban ecologies
research platform offers a unique opportunity for inter-disciplinary
and comparative approaches that consider the design and the design
processes of the built environment. Urban ecologies allows for existing
paradigms to be questioned, and for radically new approaches to the
study of cities and their environment that take into account scientific
and technological research as well as research in sociology, art, design
and aesthetics.