Tongji University's College of Architecture and Urban Planning, guided by the development of architectural disciplines towards digitalization, integration, and greenness, launched the Digital-Intelligent Spatial Design Interdisciplinary Innovative Talent Experimental Class for all majors in architecture, planning, and landscape in November 2024. The experimental class selects high-potential students from the three departments of architecture, planning, and landscape, as well as from Guohao College, to create a new AI-oriented design curriculum system and cultivate top-notch and leading talents for future spatial design practices. The class is led by Academician Wu Zhiqiang, with department leaders such as Wang Zhendong, Wang Lan, Geng Huizhi, Zhang Peng, Wang Yi, Zhuo Jian, and Zhang Ming serving as project advisors. 

Professor Philip F. Yuan serves as the project director, and Yan Chao as the project coordinator. Teachers specializing in digital intelligence, including Ye Yu, Yao Jiawei, Wang Xiang, Liu Yige, Chai Hua, Shen Yao, Yan Longxu, Gan Wei, and Yang Chen, will lead phased design courses. Additionally, relying on the DigitalFUTURES platform, the class will collaborate with international top-tier educational resources to conduct cutting-edge teaching experiments.

Spring 2025 Design Course: Spatial Geometric Diagram Design

The 2025 experimental class design course will be led by Professor John Lin, with the theme The House is a City/The City is a House, focusing on the digital rethinking of Spatial Geometric Diagram Design.

Course Theme: The House is a City/The City is a House

Instructor: John Lin, Professor at the University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Architecture and Visiting Professor at Tongji University's College of Architecture and Urban Planning

Assistant Professors: Wang Xiang and Yan Chao, both from Tongji University's College of Architecture and Urban Planning

Guest Instructors: Raimund Krenmueller, Senior Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Architecture; Davide Spina, Assistant Professor at the same faculty; Lidia Ratoi, also an Assistant Professor at the faculty

Course Students: Feng Heran, Lv Xinyao, Feng Yunqi, Gao Xingye, Wang Yunge, Liu Xingtong, Wang Jialu, Liu Youze, Huang Wenyu, Xu Yifei, Zhang Weiyu, Zhu Jingshan, Ye Sentao, Liu Yiming, Dong Zilin, Chen Yuetu, Wu Peicen, Shi Xinran, Zhang Miyue, Cheng Zihuan, Wang Xutian

About John Lin

John Lin is a Professor at the University of Hong Kong, the director of the graduate program The Building Society, and the founder of Rural Urban Framework (RUF). As a non-profit organization, RUF has carried out architectural design projects in multiple villages in China and Mongolia, covering schools, community centers, hospitals, rural housing, bridges, and town planning. Its research and design achievements have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Design Museum, London, and the Canadian Center for Architecture, Montreal. John Lin has won over 40 international design awards, including the recent John Q. Hejduk Award (recognizing excellence in architectural theory, practice, and teaching), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Emerging Architect Award, and the Ralph Erskine 100th Anniversary Memorial Award. He has been invited as a Cultural Leader to present sustainable urbanization methods to global leaders at the World Economic Forum. His recent book, As Found Houses, which documents how rural self-builders innovatively transform, splice, cut, and wrap traditional homes, won the 2022 RIBA President’s Medal for Research.

Note: The John Q. Hejduk Award, established in 2003, recognizes outstanding contributions in architectural theory, teaching, and practice. The award recipients embody John Hejduk's passion and dedication to architecture. Hejduk taught at Cooper Union from 1964 to 2000 and served as the Dean of the School of Architecture from 1975 to 2000.

Baojing Cultural Center: Material Contexts

Joshua Bolchover and John Lin

Traditional House of the Future

Lidia Ratoi and John Lin

Rethinking the Collective: Renovation strategies for the ancient tulou

John Lin and Joshua Bolchover

Wavelengths

John Lin and Olivier Ottevaere

Jintai Village Reconstruction

John Lin

Angdong Hospital Project

Joshua Bolchover and John Lin