Jiayan Yun

Assistant Professor
Department of Landscape Architecture
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University

Research Resident
Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

Visiting Scholar
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany

Ph.D. in Landscape Architecture
Seoul National University, South Korea

Email: JY23078@tongji.edu.cn/ yunjiayan7@gmail.com 

Profile

Jiayan Yun is an Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University. She received her Ph.D. in Landscape Architecture from Seoul National University, South Korea.

Her research focuses on historical landscape theory, cultural heritage conservation, and ecological adaptation. She investigates the interactions among landscape spaces, plant systems, and socio-cultural practices, with particular attention to traditional Jiangnan gardens, living heritage landscapes, and adaptive management strategies under climate change.

Her recent research explores how historical gardens continuously evolve in response to social transformations and environmental changes, and how historical landscape knowledge can contribute to contemporary heritage conservation and sustainable landscape management.

Research Interests

• Climate Adaptation and Conservation of Living Heritage Landscapes

• Historical Gardens, Plant Landscapes, and Cultural Transformation in East Asia

Teaching

Undergraduate Courses:
• Basic Design III
• History of Chinese and Western Gardens
• Landscape Plants and Applications
• Planting Design and Ecological Landscape Design Studio

Graduate Course:
• Planning Principles and Methods of Landscape Plants

Academic Service and Professional Activities

• Committee Member, Committee on History and Theory of Landscape Architecture, Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture
• Young Committee Member and Science Volunteer, Committee on Cultural Landscapes, Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture
• Founder of “Xiangzhang Xiangshi”, a public communication platform focusing on garden culture and landscape heritage

Research Grants and Projects (as Principal Investigator)

• National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Young Scientists Fund: Mechanisms and Management Strategies of the Impact of Plant Growth on Rockery Heritage in Classical Gardens: A Case Study of Suzhou Classical Gardens. Grant No. 52408086. Principal Investigator. Ongoing.

• Research in Residence Grant of the GeDiMINT Project, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany. Grant No. 01FP23G08. Principal Investigator. Ongoing.

• China Scholarship Council (CSC)-Funded International Research Program: Visiting Research at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany. Grant No. 202306260335. Principal Investigator. Completed.

• Youth Project of the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Fund: Research on Jiangnan Garden Design from the Perspective of Women’s Everyday Social Life in the Qing Dynasty. Grant No. 23YJC760149. Principal Investigator. Completed.

• Tongji University Outstanding Research Publication Program: Green Courtyard with a Gentle Breeze: Plant Spatial Poetics of Qianyuan, a Jiangnan Garden in Germany. Grant No. 22120250499. Principal Investigator. Completed.

• China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Project: Garden Images in Jiangnan Women’s Poetry during the Qing Dynasty. Grant No. 2021M691603. Principal Investigator. Completed.

• Ph.D. Dissertation Research Grant, Institute of Asian Studies, Seoul National University: Cultural Politics in the Gardens of Suzhou: Social Change and the Expansion of Garden Culture during the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties. Grant No. SNU2017(PD)0708. Principal Investigator. Completed.

Books

• Yun, Jiayan. Jiangnan Garden Design from the Perspective of Women’s Everyday Social Life in the Qing Dynasty. Southeast University Press, 2026.

• Yun, Jiayan. Green Courtyard with a Gentle Breeze: Plant Spatial Poetics of Qianyuan, a Jiangnan Garden in Germany. Tongji University Press, 2026.

• Yun, Jiayan (Ed.). A Half-Mu Pond Reflecting the Sky: Walking through Eastern Gardens from the Perspective of Neo-Confucian Philosophy. Southeast University Press, 2024.

• Li, Mingjun. Translated by Yun Jiayan. Landscape as Painting: A History of Landscape Design through Drawing Perspectives. Southeast University Press, 2022.

Selected Publications

• Yun J, Xu Y*. Spatial segregation of gardens: Transport technology and class dynamics in Suzhou’s urban evolution, 13th–20th centuries. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2026.

• Yun J, Liu H*. Spatial Syntax Analysis of the Evolution of the Water System and Garden Distribution Relationship in Suzhou: 13th–20th Centuries. Buildings, 2023.

• Yun J*, Chen Z. On two sides of a clear stream: Gender-based differences in the awareness of spatial design in the Humble Administrator’s Garden in the 18th and 19th centuries. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 2023.

• Yun J, Kim J*. Emulating and transcending literati gardens: landscape design of the Plum Villa, the garden of a literatus-merchant. Landscape Research, 2023.