The Department of
Architecture
The history of the
School of Architecture and Civil Engineering can be dated back to 1937. In
1987, the Department of Architecture was founded at Xiamen University with
assistance from Southeast University.
There are total 30
full-time faculty members in the department. About 40% of the teachers hold
doctor's degree. Currently, one professor listed among the 100 Best Architects
in Contemporary China, one professor with the title of "Masters of
Engineering Survey and Design in Fujian Province", one professor owning
the Excellent Young Architect Award (the highest award for young architects in
China), and one professor honored as Teaching Master in Fujian Province. In
addition, to enhance the quality of teaching and research, the school has also
recruited over many adjunct professors, guest professors, and honorary
professors from around the world.
In 2012, the
discipline of architecture in the department was rated as the Provincial Key
Disciplines of Fujian Province. Moreover, there are a lot of laboratories in
the department. They are the Building Material Laboratory, the Architectural
Modeling Laboratory, the Architectural Physics Laboratory, the Digital Design
Laboratory. The department is also equipped with satisfactory education
facilities, such as multimedia classrooms, audio classrooms, specialized
classrooms for painting and design, computer rooms, and seminar rooms. Its
library has collected 20000 books and journals, as well as audio and video
documents.
When the
Department of Architecture was established in 1987, two professors from
Southeast University, Prof. Husheng Guo and Prof. Zhichang Lu, were
commissioned as the earliest chairmen. Since the 1990s, under the leadership of
Prof. Ren Huang, Prof. Shide Ling, and Prof. Shaosen Wang, the department has
been developing markedly. The department was granted to confer master degree of
Architectural Design and Theory in 1999. In 2003, it successfully passed the
National Assessment of the Professional Education of Architecture in Higher
Education Institutions, and was approved the first-tier discipline of
Architecture to award the bachelor degree of Architecture directly. Two years
later in 2005, it was approved the first-tier discipline to award the master
degree of Architecture. In 2007, it successfully passed another round of
National Assessment of the Professional Education of Architecture in Higher
Education Institutions.
With arduous
endeavor, this department has formed its characteristics in talent training and
professional education:
1) Persisting in a
development way of teaching-centered, but combined closely with scientific
research and engineering practice. Through involving in many research projects
and engineering projects held by the teachers in the department, as well as
taking part in various professional contests, students can learn both the
cutting-edge academic theories and useful professional skills, and therefore
can be more competitive in the job market. Students in the department often get
awards in National University Student Contest of Architecture Design. Some of
them even won the first place in several international and region design
contests.
2) Setting up the
concept of "comprehensive quality education", constantly enriching
and adjusting the teaching plans, and making full use of the multidisciplinary
advantages of Xiamen University as a comprehensive university. Oriented by this
concept, a subject system with five modules of "Base, Technology, Ability,
Theory, and Intersection" has been configured in order to constantly provide
high quality talents for the society.
Meanwhile, the department
is also associated with one entrepreneurial institutes - the Research Institute
of Architectural Design. With market-oriented operation and enterprise
management, the institute is running just like those enterprises in the related
industries, and therefore can provide a kind of simulation training base for
the students. The institute has got the national first-level qualification.
The department is
also very active in international academic exchange and cooperation. So far it
has conducted cooperation with Cardiff University (UK), University of Pavia
(Italy)，ENSAB(France), Lund University (Sweden)，and the National University of Science and
Technology of Taiwan, in the areas of joint training courses, exchanges of
teachers and students, and collaborative research. It has also built close
academic ties with San Francisco State University (USA), the University of
London (UK), the Technical University of Berlin. In recent years, the department
has invited a number of renowned foreign scholars to visit Xiamen University as
guest professors, and meanwhile has assigned dozens of students and faculty
members to study or participate in an academic conference abroad. Approximately
35% of our full-time teachers here in the department have the experience of
studying abroad.
