Penn-SEU Exchange Program Focuses on Trade and Built Environment

Global trade and supply chain networks have transformed the physical and digital worlds, from resource extraction and workshops and factories to trade markets, warehousing, and beyond. The Chinese city of Yiwu is a primary source for global wholesale supply chains, and is known as the world’s capital of small commodities. It has undergone significant change over the past four decades, evolving from a small village into a sprawling city shaped by the flow of goods, geopolitical shifts, and the rapid growth of domestic and international e-commerce.

Building on previous summer schools, Weitzman joined forces with Southeast University (SEU) for Global Wholesale: Evolving Rural-Urban Communities in a Distributed Network of Flows in 2026. From May 19 through June 6, 2026, faculty and students from Weitzman, SEU, and Zhejiang University gathered in Yiwu to study the city and its surrounding regions, which serve as a living laboratory for exploring the spatial, architectural, and urban physical forms of global commerce.

The students undertook intensive investigations, including fieldwork, mapping, and design research, to examine how the markets work; how production, storage, and exchange are distributed across territory; how the digital transformation has reorganized supply chains and, most importantly, how these changes have generated architectural and urban forms.

The students sought to answer fundamental questions about the relationship between commerce and space. How does the wholesale trade organize territory differently from industrial production or financial services? What kinds of architectural types and urban patterns emerge from extended periods of market-driven growth? And how might the lessons of Yiwu inform our thinking about other contexts where trade shapes the built environment?

Participating Weitzman students included Jada-Mercy Ayebae, Victoria Assokokom-Siakam, Lindsay Boetttiger, Hannah Chon, Jalloh Dalanda, Falere Fagoroye, Rian Gonzalez, Alejandrew Grider, Alexa Halim, Lay'la Harmon, Ethan Harner, Nelson Henriquez, Autumn Jeter, Kamau-Sahu Louis, Caleb Mancillas, Ivan Makhno, Jesus Morales Hernandez, Ella Mountcastle, Ryan Nubling, Tatum Phillips, Rachel Rowlee, Benjamin Romo, Edward Saltzman, Leyna Tran, Liz VanDerwerken, Choi Seo Yeon, Paul Weisner, and Meghan Weritz.

The teaching team from Weitzman included faculty members Robert Gerard Pietrusko, Zhongjie Lin, Yadan Luo, Lane Ann Rick and Teaching Assitant Chengyan Xia.

The teaching team from Southeast University (SEU) and Zhejiang University (ZJU) included Yifan Wang, Yonggao Shi Instructors: Jun Cao, Tao Shou, Gaochao Zhang, Li Guan, and Huan Zhang.

View the gallery of all 12 student proposals on Archinect.