Dr. Zhongjie Lin holds the position of Benjamin Z. Lin Presidential Professor and serves as the Director of the Urban Design concentration in the Department of City and Regional Planning, as well as the Director of the Future Cities Initiative at the Weitzman School of Design. He is also co-founder of Futurepolis, an awarding-winning international planning and design consultancy.
As an accomplished scholar and practitioner in urbanism, Dr. Lin specializes in urban design, sustainable urbanization, emerging mobilities, and Asian architecture and cities. His extensive research has produced numerous peer-reviewed works, including Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan (2010/2023), Rio de Janeiro: Urban Expansion and Environment (2019), Vertical Urbanism: Designing Compact Cities in China (2018), The Making of a Chinese Model New Town (2012), and Urban Design in the Global Perspective (2006). His latest books, Imagineering the Future City (China Architecture and Building Press) and China’s New Town Movement: The Production of Utopian Spaces in the 21st Century (Oxford University Press), are set for released in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
Dr. Lin recently helmed a three-year Penn Global project titled “Spatial Visions Connecting China and the West,” curated the acclaimed exhibition “Building in China: A Century of Dialogues on Modern Architecture,” and led symposia focusing on infrastructure and urban regeneration. His ongoing research investigates the spatial and environmental ramifications of emerging autonomous mobilities.
Dr. Lin's achievements have been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship (2012), Guggenheim Fellowship (2013), Abe Fellowship (2014), and Lincoln Institute Fellowship (2024). Additionally, he has received three grants from the Graham Foundation and a New Researcher Award from the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (2012). Prior to his tenure at the Weitzman School of Design, Dr. Lin was a Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he had led the Master of Urban Design Program since 2014. He obtained his Ph.D. in Architectural History and Theory from the University of Pennsylvania and his Bachelor and Master of Architecture from Tongji University.
