Chair:  Zeng Peng

Associate Chair:  Bu Xueyang ,  Jian Qingming , Xu Xiwei ,  Zhang He

I. Development HistoryThe history of the department dates back to 1937 when the architecture department of Tianjin Industrial and Commercial College was established, which was the predecessor of the Architecture College of Tianjin University. In 1954, led by the famous ‘returnee’ urban planning scholar , Professor Shen Yulin, a specialized education system of urban planning was established in China for the first time. In 1955, the department began to form urban planning specialization, setting up teaching and research offices in this area. Senior students of architecture had courses available in urban planning. In 1963, the department began to admit graduate students specialized in planning. In 1986, the State Education Commission approved the department’s undergraduate major in urban planning, which began to admit students in 1988. In 1997, in the process of a college system reform, the Architecture College was founded. The original teaching and research offices developed into the department of urban planning. Soon, a doctoral program was established in 1998. During the development of the department, many people including Xu Zhong-architect and architectural educator, Peng Yigang-architect and academician of Chinese Academy of Science, have made great contribution.
The urban planning program in Tianjin University passed the accreditation by the National Committee of Education and Evaluation on urban planning in 2000 as one of the earliest and first tier programs. It was accredited again with distinction in 2004 and 2010. In 2007, the ‘first-level discipline’ architecture which urban planning was sub-categorized to was awarded the state-level key discipline. In 2010, the program of urban planning was named a specialty brand-name program in Tianjin, and was honored a key discipline in Tianjin in 2011. With the increasing significance of urban planning in national and educational systems, in 2011, the Academic Degrees Committee and Educational Department of the State Council reset urban and rural planning as a first-level discipline, and changed its name from “urban planning” into “urban and rural planning”, appearing first in the new undergraduate catalogue of 2012.
Through years of accumulation and practice, the program of urban planning in Tianjin University has formed its own academic influences and educational outreach. In ceaseless exploration, improvement and experience summary, the program has developed its own academic system and major features in teaching material, courses and faculty development. After graduating, students majoring in urban planning can find jobs in professional planning or design institutes, management or research institutes, some working at development or management related positions. They can also work on urban and rural planning or design for research institutes or higher education institutions. The proportion of students attending graduate school is above 50 percent, and a large amount of students go abroad for further study.
II. Faculties of the Department
This program has 25 full-time faculty, including eight professors, twelve associate professors, five lecturers, and all mid-age and junior faculty have doctoral degree. The whole teaching and research faculty possess first-tier university education background in China or abroad. Faculty members in our department are all extremely qualified and diversified. In the long development and expansion of the department, it has formed a professional and diversified teaching and research team with a reasonable structure and solid professional skills. Among faculty members, we have the field’s accreditation members of the Academic Degrees Committee under the State Council, national registered planner exam proposition expert and steering committee member of the national college of urban and rural planning, the national college of urban and rural planning specialist assessment committee.
III. Research Directions
The discipline has formed coastal city security and digital disaster prevention, urban and rural planning and land use, urban and rural history and heritage conservation, urban design and urban landscape planning, urban ecology and community development, urban and rural planning management, and other many research directions. The discipline consists of four research institutions: urban planning and design research center, ecological city and green construction theory research center, research institute of urban space and urban design and institute of urban history conservation and development.
IV. Major Achievements
This discipline relies on the traditional advantage of the college, aiming at the international discipline development frontier and insisting on industry-university-research integrated construction to achieve the comprehensive and balanced growth of the discipline and maintain the overall strength ranking high in China. Due to excellent professional education, our students possess solid basic skills, strong design capabilities and high comprehensive qualities and get favorable reception by the employing organizations. The students come out top at the competition of the national urban and rural planing design project. This department attaches importance to the international horizon cultivation, arranging short-term international competitions, exchange program, and international activities in every year, such as combined training of the postgraduate, study aboard projects and international conferences.
This subject is based on four research centers, as well as the Chinese Historical and Cultural Heritage Conservation International Research Center, State Administration of Cultural Heritage Survey and Mapping Study of Cultural Relics Research, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Architecture Physical Environment and Ecological Technology, and other key scientific research institutions. At the same time, based on a comprehensive university discipline platform, and cooperate with the school of management, the school of environment and urban planning design and research institute of Tianjin university closely, we have make great achievements and we have core competitive advantages especially in the urban design, security and digital urban disaster prevention, urban historical and cultural heritage protection, urban ecological planning directions. In the recent five years, we has undertaken nearly 300 vertical research projects, including national science and technology support plan, key project of national natural science foundation, national social science fund major projects, key projects of national social science fund, and other 200 horizontal projects, including local government projects and projects committed by the enterprises and public institutions. Our planning and designing projects has won many national and provincial awards, including the award of National Excellent Village Planning and Design, Zhan Tianyou Civil Engineering Award of China, Tianjin Excellent Urban and Rural Planning and Design, Provincial Excellent Achievements of Urban and Rural Planning, Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award of Tianjin, etc.
Professors in our department host and participate in the conclusion of Tianjin city character and style conservation area regulations, green residential area and the environmental noise control and other ten local standards, and in the writing of the national registered planner textbook. They also undertake the task of designing the national registered planner exam. In recent years, the department has dispatched more than 10 temporary teachers to the remote mountain areas and areas inhabited by minority nationalities such as Jiangxi, Fujian and Inner Mongolia, offering strategic consultations for the local construction. At the same time, our department involved in the establishment of two journals: City Space Design and City Environment Design and provides editors and experts for other 20 kinds of core journals.