Li Xiangning

Dean of CAUP

Professor/PhD

The College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) of Tongji University originated from the restructuring of Chinese university and college systems in 1952 when the departments of architecture, civil engineering and the like of Tongji University, St. John's University and other universities and colleges merged into a new Department of Architecture of Tongji University. Shanghai's distinctive feature of blending the East and West and leading cultural trends is also deeply engraved in the veins of Tongji's studies of architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture. Instead of following the Beaux-Arts style and its representative, the American University of Pennsylvania that cultivated most founders of the architectural departments in China in the early 20th century, the Department of Architecture of Tongji University has inherited the new traditions of Europe's modern architecture and made special contribution to the pioneering path of modernity for Chinese architecture. CAUP boasts many masters,Feng Jizhong, one of the important founders of modern Chinese architecture; Jin Jingchang, the founder of our Department of Urban Planning and an important founder of China's urban planning education; Chen Congzhou, a master of the studies of classical Chinese gardens.

Over the past 70 years, CAUP of Tongji University, with its philosophy of being inclusive and absorptive, has cultivated many academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering and masters of survey and design, such as Wei Dunshan, Zou Deci, Zheng Shiling, Chang Qing and Wu Zhiqiang. A number of professors, such as Feng Jizhong, Luo Xiaowei, Zheng Shiling, Chang Qing, Wu Zhiqiang and Wu Jiang, were recognized as Members of the l’Académie D’Architecture de France, the German National Academy of Science and Engineering and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, or Honorary Fellows of American Institute of Architecture. Nearly ten winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and dozens of top scholars in the world serve as honorary professors, consulting professors and visiting professors of CAUP, such as Ieoh Ming Pei, Robert Venturi, Arata Isozaki, Ando Tadao and Glenn Murcutt. CAUP's alumni and teachers also include the Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Wang Shu, as well as Zhang Yonghe, Rushan Hu and other world-renowned architects. Having formed an open, diversified and international education atmosphere, CAUP has become one of the world's top architectural schools today. The Architecture, Urban and Rural Planning, and Landscape Architecture studies in CAUP are included in China’s World First Class University and First Class Academic Discipline Construction Plan. Owing to our great comprehensive strength, CAUP was ranked 13th on the QS World University Rankings for Architecture and Built Environment.

In the future, CAUP will continue its exploration in technological changes and theoretical innovation to promote China's transformation from a major country to a global leader in the field of construction, and contribute to establishing a Chinese school of thoughts in the field of cities and architecture.