Professor

Prof. Chen Zhen was born in China in 1979. He obtained Ph.D degree from Politechnico di Milan in Architectural composition. Since 2013 he has been the contract professor in school of Architettura Civile, Politechnico di Milan, teaching optional course “Project of Architectural and City in China” (university link) and collaborating with Prof.Maurizo Meriggi in planning and architectural design lab for master degree students. From 2001 he started the professional career in China and made many architectural and urban planning projects. He has been Chinese national certified and registered urban planner since 2006.

He is co-founder of RECS Architects (studio link). His professional working places are Italy, Dubai and China.

Some other professors – Prof.Maurizo Meriggi, Prof.Cristina Pallini, Prof.Federico Acuto, Prof.Stefano Recalcati, PhD. Prof. Tan Zhu are also invited to give lecture and/or be members of exam committee in our course.

 

Objective

The lectures are going to discuss the current situations of the Chinese urban planning and architecture, which is different from the European and American cases. The contemporary Chinese city shape is made of the interaction of several urban planning images: the ambition to be the most modern form of urban modernization, the ambition to be Chinese respecting the traditional values of Chinese culture, the ambition to be oriented /addressed/ aimed to be a social development.

The course will introduce and review panoramically the phenomena of Chinese urban planning and architecture, which could introduce the students to the a picture of the interaction of these features in the chines context.

 

Subject

Starting from the cases study, the lessons will introduce and discuss projects and the relative debates in the contemporary society. For some contemporary cases there will be an historical review of the problems in Chinese context.

To reveal and understand these phenomena, the lectures will discuss the tradition system and contemporary phenomephon of Chinese urbanization / urban planning, the relation between the ancient city and new city, the Chinese culture of park and landscape, the architecture of cultural facilities, the architecture of the railway stations (old and new), the Pear River Delta metropolitan study, the culture of the Chinese housing, the “copycat” phenomenon in China, etc.