About

Critical creative engagement is of increasing importance in a world that has seemingly entered a state of permanent crisis. Unprecedented ecological, technological, economic, and social transformations require the re-evaluation of both concepts and categories from a viewpoint of architecture and design. Complexities of the relations between modernisation and tradition, local, regional and global, the rural and the urban are in urgent need of research that takes into account all of the perspectives the world has to offer and their related technologies, histories, philosophies, and theories.

In the historically important city of Suzhou, which is today located in one of China’s key regions of economic boom, the tensions between crises and opportunities crystallize. With an international faculty possessing strong and diversified backgrounds in the histories, theories and heritage of designed environments, the Department of Architecture at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) is ideally placed to engage in studies and research on above-mentioned subject matters. 

They cover a variety of fields of interest, including the histories and theories of art and design, products, architecture, cities, and landscape, as well as the built heritage, and cultural and material histories. The Cultural Innovation and Critical Histories research stream fosters collaborations with colleagues from other Departments, such as Industrial Design, Urban Planning and Design, and China Studies, as well as professionals and institutions outside academia, such as the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for Asia and the Pacific Region (WHITR-AP). In line with XJTLU’s mandate, it aims to create a bridge between Eastern and Western research practices and themes, as it offers opportunities for campaigns at local, regional and international levels.

Fields of interest and expertise pertaining to the area include:

• histories and theories of architecture, design and associated arts 

• reflections on Chinese architecture, design and associated arts in a global context

• transnational studies of architectural and design cultures

• regeneration of built and related living heritages

• conservation and restoration of historic buildings and landscapes

• technologies of historical and built heritage research

• assessment, enhancement, and promotion of historical heritage in relation to tourism strategies (as in the case of World Heritage Sites)