Xing Ruan joined the University of New South Wales as Professor of Architecture in 2004. His present position - the Chair of Architecture Discipline Group - involves academic planning for the discipline. Prior to this appointment, he was the Head of Department of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Before joining UTS in early 2002, Xing was Associate Professor of Architecture at Curtin University. Born in China, Xing received his architectural education from the Southeast University in Nanjing. From 1986 to 1991, Xing practiced architecture in China; he has maintained an ongoing involvement in architectural practice in Australia. Currently he serves as an architectural consultant for Bligh Voller Nield and
atelier s-h.
Teaching
Xing Ruan teaches architectural design, history and theory. He has lectured in the USA, the UK, Italy, South-East Asia, China and Australia. In 2001, he won the Curtin University Innovative Teaching Award. He was the curator of a student work exhibition chosen as part of the Union of International Architects official exhibition in 1999.
Research
Xing Ruan’s scholarly interest lies in the study of physical laws of architectural forms, as well as their ‘social life’ in a broader historical and cultural context. More specifically, his work, while concerning legible relations between humans and their built world, searches for pattern and meaning through the study of myriads of building types. Xing has published on architecture and anthropology, architectural education, Louis Kahn, China’s modern and contemporary architecture, as well as Australian contemporary architecture.
His recent books include:
Allegorical Architecture (University of Hawai’I Press, 2006), and
New China Architecture (Periplus/Tuttle, 2006); he is co-editor (with Paul Hogben) of
Topophilia and Topophobia: Reflections on Twentieth-century Human Habitat (Routledge, 2007). His essays have appeared in some of the world's leading scholarly journals, including the
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians and the
Journal of Material Culture. He has also contributed to professional journals such as
Architecture Australia,
Architectural Review Australia,
Indesign and
Jianzhu shi [The Architect] in China. Some of his writings can be found in
Asia's Old Dwellings (Oxford, 2003), and
Yung Ho Chang/Atelier Feichang Jianzhu- A Chinese Practice (MAP Book Publishers, 2003). He is co-editor, with Ronald Knapp, of the book series
Spatial Habitus: Making and Meaning in Asia´s Architecture, which is published by the University of Hawai’I Press.
Reviews of Xing Ruan´s Books
Page Last Updated: 9 Feb 2008
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