Setting a record for the farthest field trip in NYIT history, 14 architecture students traveled to China earlier this year to participate in a design workshop focusing on the redevelopment of the Shanghai waterfront. The six-week pilot program, Eye of the Storm: Summer in Shanghai, paired NYIT students with their counterparts from the College of Architecture and Planning at Tongji University in Shanghai, China. Following a crash-course in Mandarin, the NYIT students examined the waterfront

Dean Judith DiMaio (standing) of NYIT’s School of Architecture and Design with students in China.

area, looking at the special challenges the location presented as well as its strengths. Then, working with their new friends, they developed comprehensive strategic visions for the site, including urban design, landscape and housing solutions.

“We wanted to see how students from different cultures would respond to identical design challenges and how they would collaborate across language boundaries,” says NYIT Assistant Professor Matthew Dockery, who supervised the program.

NYIT students were encouraged to explore Shanghai and took excursions outside the city, touring the canals of Xitan, the gardens of Suzhou and the topography of Beijing. They also studied culture, calligraphy and traditional brush painting with local masters at Tongji University.

The program was so successful that Dockery says future projects are already being planned. Results of the collaboration were published by Tongji University Press and are available for purchase by contacting Dockery at mdockery@nyit.edu.