
School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Urban conservation and design
National Engineering Survey and Design Master
Doctoral Supervisor, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University
Deputy Director, National Heritage Center
Member of the Expert Committee on Historical and Cultural Heritage Conservation and Inheritance, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development
Vice President, Urban Planning Society of China
Chair, Urban Design Branch, Architectural Society of China
Chair, Academic Committee on Industrial Architectural Heritage, Architectural Society of China
Vice President, Urban Renewal Branch, China Engineering Construction Standardization Association
Vice President, Chinese National Committee of ICOMOS
China’s first Lifetime Honorary Member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
Chair, Asia-Pacific Branch of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Historic Towns and Villages (CIVVIH)
UNESCO Chairholder in Heritage Conservation Planning and Social Sustainable Development
Professor Jie Zhang has long been engaged in scientific research, teaching, and practical work in the fields of urban and rural heritage conservation and renewal, urban character shaping, and sustainable development. He has achieved groundbreaking research results in the cultural cognition, conservation, and renewal of traditional Chinese cities and settlements, publishing 20 monographs, including Tracing the Origins of Ancient Chinese Spatial Culture and Methodology for Historic City Conservation Planning, as well as over a hundred journal articles in domestic and international publications. As a key drafter, he has compiled national standards, local guidelines, and group standards, and holds multiple software copyrights and invention patents. He has led and completed numerous national and international collaborative research projects, including key projects under China’s 13th Five-Year National R&D Program, National Natural Science Foundation projects, and projects funded by the U.S. Energy Foundation. He has supervised nearly 100 doctoral and master’s graduates and received the Beijing Municipal Teaching Achievement Award (First Prize).
He has directed the completion of several major conservation and renewal projects, making significant contributions to exploring urban conservation systems suited to China’s context and establishing long-term, effective approaches to multi-level conservation and renewal at the "city-district-building" scale. Representative projects include conservation plans for nationally designated historic cities such as Guangzhou, Kunming, and Chengde, as well as conservation and renewal designs for districts, buildings, and environments, including Fuzhou’s Three Lanes and Seven Alleys, Beijing’s Imperial College-Yonghe Temple area, Nanjing’s Old Southern City, and Jingdezhen’s Taoxichuan Cultural and Creative Block.
As the primary contributor, Jie Zhang has received numerous prestigious awards, including:
UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation (Awards of Excellence, Innovation, and Distinction)
Ministry of Culture Innovation Award
Huaxia Construction Science and Technology Award (First Prize)
Architectural Society of China Science and Technology Progress Award (First Prize)
China Industry-University-Research Collaboration Innovation Achievement Award (First Prize)
German Design Award (Gold in Architecture)
The Architecture MasterPrize (Best of Best)
ICONIC Awards: Innovative Architecture (Best of Best, twice)
Ministry of Education Engineering Survey and Design Award (First Prize, five times)
National Planning and Architecture Industry Awards (First Prize, over ten times)

Neoland School of Chinese Culture, Ontario, Canada
Architectural humanities; Architecture and urbanism; Courtyard architecture; Chinese culture; Philosophy of architecture
Dr Donia Zhang is an author, writer, and editor of Architectural Humanities in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. She is the director of Chinese Culture Publishing, Neoland School of Chinese Culture, Neoland-Neolife Cross-Cultural Studies; the founding editor of Courtyard Architecture: Along the Silk Roads, around the World; and the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism (JCAU).
She has authored four scholarly books: Courtyard Houses of Beijing: Past, Present, and Future (2009/2010/2011), Schoolyard Gardening as Multinaturalism: Theory, Practice, and Product (2009), Courtyard Housing and Cultural Sustainability: Theory, Practice, and Product (2013/2016), and Courtyard Housing for Health and Happiness: Architectural Multiculturalism in North America (2015/2017).
Moreover, she contributed three chapters in two eBooks, Dialogues of Sustainable Urbanisation: Social Science Research and Transitions to Urban Contexts (2015), and New Approaches in Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism (2020). She has also published 20 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals. WorldCat has listed most of these publications.
Donia has seven years of work experience in the architectural industry in Toronto and Chicago, and eleven years of teaching experience in higher education in Ontario, Canada. The subjects she has taught include: History of Art and Architecture, Interior Design, and AutoCAD, among others.
Donia is a graduate of Oxford Brookes University (BArch, MA, PhD) in the UK and Brock University (MEd) in Canada. She has also obtained a Verified Certificate of Achievement in The Architectural Imagination from Harvard University | edX, and a Verified Certificate of Achievement in Interpreting Vernacular Architecture in Asia from the University of Hong Kong | edX. She is a former associate at the City Institute at York University, and a visiting scholar/occasional co-instructor at McMaster University, Canada.

College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Urban design; Urban form; Settlement space analysis; Architectural space composition
Dr. Cui Liu is an Associate Professor at the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, and serves as the Deputy Director of the Department of Architecture.
Editorial Board Member: Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism, Contemporary World's Architecture
Reviewer: Routledge, IGI Global, Regional Studies, Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture
Consultant: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Department of Science and Technology of Zhejiang Province, Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province, International Exchanging Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology
Member: International Seminar on Urban Form, Regional Studies Association, Triple Helix Association, China Architectural Society, China Urban Planning Society
Dr. Liu’s research focuses on urban morphology and physical-virtual interaction of public space. Leveraging theories such as urban morphology, landscape ecology, and spatial production, she employs digital intelligence technologies to investigate the morphological characteristics, dynamic mechanisms, and design methodologies of urban and rural spaces.
Dr. Liu has led multiple research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation, Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project, and the Ministry of Education’s Humanities and Social Sciences Research Program. She was also awarded the EU Erasmus+ Research Grant and has directed numerous architectural design and urban-rural planning initiatives.
Her academic contributions include 10 books (in Chinese and English) and over 30 journal articles published domestically and internationally. Recognized for teaching excellence, she has received two National Outstanding Teaching Plan Awards for architectural design and developed two provincial first-class undergraduate courses in Zhejiang. Additionally, she has led the compilation of several key textbooks, including those under the China Association of Higher Education’s "New Engineering" 14th Five-Year Plan, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs’ 14th Five-Year Plan, and Zhejiang Province’s New Engineering Key Textbook Series, while contributing to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development’s 14th Five-Year Plan textbook.

Department of Construction Production, Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Kuban State Agrarian University, Russia;
Department of Technology, Organization, Construction Economics and Real Estate Management, Institute of Construction and Transport Infrastructure, Kuban State Technological University, Russia
Technology and organization in construction and building materials industry

Joint School of Design and Innovation, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian, China
Chinese vernacular architecture; Historic built environment regeneration; Cultural heritage conservation; Environment-behavior studies; Community-based planning
Dr. Yubin Xu is an Assistant Professor from XJTU, who obtained his M. Arch and Ph.D. from Tongji University, Shanghai. During his Ph.D., he also conducted a joint Ph.D. program at the College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore. Dr. Xu’s research focuses on the regeneration of the historic built environment and the revitalization of cultural heritage by integrating environment-behavior studies and regional vernacular architecture.