Professor丨Doctor of Engineering
Room 311, Main Building
Teaching Area: design studio, architectural graphic, residential principles
Research Theme: digital architecture design and fabrication, kinetic design, BIM, underground space
Xu Zhen is a Professor of Architecture at Tianjin University. His main research fields are computational design and fabrication, generative computation, kinetic design and graphic algorithms. He is currently teaching a design studio on ‘generative design’, focused on advanced design computation methods by using Grasshopper, Processing, and other coding languages. His seminar course ‘Architectural Graphic’ introduces mathematical theory for discovering graphic principles in contemporary architecture.
Prof. Xu’s recent research projects deal with the topics of coordinative design management of BIM, sensitive and programmable materials, and multimedia presentations. He is also a 1st class registered architect and competition winner who has done several projects in Qingdao, Changchun, and Tianjin.
Prof. Xu obtained the professional Bachelor and Master degrees in Architecture, and a Doctor degree in Engineering, from Tianjin University. He worked at TU Delft as a guest researcher for a half year, and has held a successful joint studio with the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) since 2006; the main topic of the TJU-UCLA studio is to explore possibilities for the future of Architecture.
