On June 13, 2025, a group of 15 faculty members and students from the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia (UVA) visited the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University for an academic exchange. The UVA delegation was led by two prominent scholars in the field of modern and contemporary architecture: Shiqiao Li, the Asia Research Chair Professor, and Esther Lorenz, Associate Professor.

The academic exchange commenced with lectures by the two visiting professors, focusing on their co-authored book Typological Drift: Emerging Cities in China. The lectures were structured into three sections—Ten Thousand Things, Figuration, and Group Action—which explored the transformative characteristics of Chinese cities over the past four decades and how these traits have emerged from China's cultural and philosophical foundations. Following the lectures, Associate Professor Tan Zheng of CAUP, along with Associate Professor Liu Gang, Researcher Guo Boya, and Postdoctoral Fellow Zhang Tian, engaged in a panel discussion with the visiting scholars. Topics covered included the future possibilities of urban development in China and the Orientalist tendencies in contemporary urban studies.

Subsequently, the students accompanying the visiting scholars presented their research findings from a two-week field study of gardens in Suzhou and Hangzhou. This research, conducted as part of UVA's Master's program, was themed Poetics of Immanence and guided by Professors Li and Lorenz. The students analyzed Chinese garden design principles through the lenses of traditional culture, spatial organization, vegetation, and hydrology, and created artistic works inspired by their garden experiences. These works were exhibited in the critique space on the first floor of Building B at our college on June 12 and 13.