Photo of participants

On the morning of July 24, 2015, the Roundtable Meeting on Contemporary Architectural Education was held at the C1 conference room of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) of Tongji University. The event riveted serious attention with the participation Professor Hsinming Fung, Chairman of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and Director of the Academic Affairs Southern California Institute of Architecture. It also enticed a tech crowd from leading architectural colleges in China, i.e., Professor Cai Yongjie, Dean of Architecture Department of CAUP of Tongji University; Professor Ding Wowo, Dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Nanjing University; Professor Ge Ming, Deputy Dean of Architecture School of Southeast University; Professor Huang Yiru, Deputy Dean of CAUP of Tongji University; Professor Kong Yuhang, Deputy Dean of Tianjin University School of Architecture; Professor Long Hao, Deputy Dean of School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Chongqing University; Professor Liu Kecheng, Dean of College of Architecture of Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology; Professor Li Linxue from CAUP of Tongji University; Professor Luo Peng, Deputy Dean of School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology; Professor Li Xiangning, Deputy Dean of CAUP of Tongji University; Professor Li Zhenyu, Dean of CAUP of Tongji University; Professor Xu Weiguo, Dean of Architecture Department of the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University; and Associate Professor Xu Jie, Executive Editor-in-Chief of T+A magazine. 

Professor Li Xiangning, Deputy Dean of CAUP of Tongji University who also chaired the meeting, first briefed on the background and the agenda for the event. Li Zhenyu, Dean of CAUP of Tongji University, then gave a brief speech to welcome Hsinming Fung and domestic participants from across China. 

As the keynote speaker, Professor Hsinming Fung gave a detailed, vivid account of the past and present of the ACSA and how it established an effective mechanism to promote architectural education in the US. Launched in 1912, the ACSA is a century-old non-profit organization committed to the improvement of architectural education, and its members have evolved from 10 chartered architectural colleges at its inception to more than 250 member units today of different classification standards.

As a leading organization of American architecture colleges, the ACSA plays an important and unique role, as it not only provides a platform for the discussion of cutting-edge architectural topics that determine the industry’s future, but also champions a range of influential communication efforts in various forms, including conferences, seminars, publications, awards and competitions. As all of them provide driving forces for architectural research, policy development and closer relationship with related organizations, the ACSA has proved to be a bridge between colleges and universities, students and teachers, scholastic education and industry development.

In the roundtable discussion session, guests from various architectural colleges in China interacted with Hsinming Fung on various core issues, e. g, the challenges of the present digital era to architectural education, the relationship between research and practice, and the formulation of standards of architectural education system in China and the US. Wu Jiang, Vice President of Tongji University, rushed to the scene before the end of the meeting, and he delivered a welcome speech in honor of Professor Fung. With the capacity of a leading architectural educator, he also expressed his own views of architectural education in collegiate schools. Although the meeting did not last long, it proved to be a rewarding experience with a heart-warming atmosphere that culminated with the ritual photo ops.