13. Direction: Spatial Design and Narrative Engineering
Supervisors: Mou Sen, Li Kaisheng
The Spatial Design and Narrative Engineering program leverages the Institute’s interdisciplinary platform to advance the integration of landscape design, spatial production, new media art, and cultural performance and exhibition practices. Responding to the evolving needs of urban regeneration, creative media, and cultural presentation in contemporary China, the programme aims to cultivate interdisciplinary professionals equipped with expertise in spatial design, media development, and curatorial practice for contemporary China's urban renewal, media creativity, and cultural performance sectors. In response to the holistic demands of China's urban development—including urban planning, environmental design, and media innovation—the programme offers integrated frontier research topics across "spatial production," "media design," and "narrative engineering." Students are encouraged to develop an open humanistic perspective and critical thinking that bridges art, design, and engineering, while engaging in field-based research and practice-oriented projects grounded in contemporary social and cultural contexts.
14. Direction: Spatial Production and Architectural Media
Supervisors: Huang Sunquan, Wang Lin
The Spatial Production and Architectural Media program examines the dynamic relationship between space, technology, and contemporary society against the backdrop of China’s ongoing industrialization, urbanization, and digital transformation. Grounded in the theory of spatial production, the programme investigates the dialectical interaction between representations of space, spatial practices, and representational spaces, providing a critical framework for understanding the social and cultural production of the built environment in contemporary China.
The programme adopts the concept of architectural media as an expanded field of creative practice, employing a wide range of media and methodologies—including architectural design, virtual environment construction, photography, filmmaking, sculpture, graphic design, photogrammetry, performance, and product design and fabrication—to explore innovative modes of spatial creation and representation. Students are encouraged to experiment with alternative forms of spatial production that enhance both conceptual inquiry and design practice.
Focusing on spatial technologies and their material and digital manifestations, this research direction investigates interventions in the making of environments across multiple scales—from geographical territories and architectural spaces to virtual and computational spatial fabrics.
15. Direction: Spatial Phenomenology and Environmental Art
Supervisors: Li Kaisheng, Guan Huaibin, Lian Mian
The Spatial Phenomenology and Environmental Art program combines foundational knowledge of architecture with a phenomenological approach to investigate the relationship between space, artistic creation, and environmental practice. Framed through the perspective of spatial narrative and making, the programme understands space not merely as a physical environment but as a multidimensional construct in which material, spiritual, and cultural dimensions are deeply intertwined. Its central concern is the study of these hybrid “spiritual–material” spaces and the ideas, methods, and creative processes through which they are conceived and realized.
Through close engagement between faculty and students, the curriculum examines the historical evolution of spatial thought in both Eastern and Western traditions, comparing their philosophical foundations while cultivating advanced research skills in Chinese historical texts and visual culture. Particular emphasis is placed on the formative development of traditional Chinese concepts of space from the pre-Qin period through the Han dynasty, with further exploration of the Sui–Tang and Song periods, as well as later developments in landscape and garden culture. By tracing these intellectual and artistic lineages, the programme provides a robust theoretical foundation for the contemporary reinterpretation and creative transformation of traditional spatial culture.
More broadly, the programme investigates how diverse concepts of space shape both individual experience and collective ways of inhabiting the world, highlighting the essential role of spatial thought in the construction of the lifeworld. At the level of creative practice, students are encouraged to move beyond passive engagement with designed objects and instead recognize all forms of making as the outcome of an ongoing dialogue between material conditions and cultural imagination. Through sustained observation, critical reflection, and practice-led research, they develop their own methodologies of spatial making, grounded in an understanding of the original processes through which spiritual and material spaces are brought into being.
16. Direction: Marxist Literary and Art Theory
Supervisors: Zhai Zhiqiang, Ge Jiafeng, Sun Shanchun, Zhu Zhaoxuan, Ding Hongqi, Xu Zengliu
The Marxist Literary and Art Theory program is grounded in the interpretation of classical Marxist thought and the Sinicization of Marxist theories of literature and art, providing both the theoretical foundation and methodological framework for scholarly inquiry and artistic practice. While rooted in the Marxist intellectual tradition, the programme actively engages with contemporary developments in the global art world, drawing upon the enduring legacy and evolving practices of visual art to address current theoretical and cultural challenges.
The programme focuses on key issues including the visual dimensions of Marxist aesthetics, the ideological character of artistic production, and the practical orientation of Marxist theories of art. Through specialized research in the theory of artistic value, artistic creation, and art education, students critically examine the contemporary relevance of Marxist literary and art theory while contributing to its ongoing development within the Chinese context.
