Shaping Future Cities: Global Urbanism, Sustainable Infrastructure, and Emerging Mobility

You are cordially invited to attend the lecture by Lin Zhongjie:

Date and Time: 26 August 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Location: SDE 3, LT426

Shaping Future Cities: Global Urbanism, Sustainable Infrastructure, and Emerging Mobility

This talk examines how urban design can respond to the unprecedented transformations reshaping cities in the twenty-first century, including rapid urbanization, climate change, and disruptive technologies. Drawing on research, design practice, and teaching across Asia and the Americas, Professor Zhongjie Lin presents an interdisciplinary framework that reconnects urban design with history, ecology, infrastructure, and technological innovation. Through examples ranging from Asia’s architectural avant-garde and China’s new town movement to future streets and autonomous mobility, the lecture argues for a people-centered approach that integrates design research, emerging technologies, and public engagement to create more resilient, equitable, and sustainable cities.

Dr. Zhongjie Lin is the Benjamin Lin Presidential Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, where he directs the Urban Design Program and the Future Cities Initiative. His research explores the theory and practice of urbanism, Asian architecture and cities, urban mobility, and sustainable infrastructure. He is the author of numerous books, including Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement (2010; 2nd ed., 2023), Vertical Urbanism (2018), Rio de Janeiro (2019), Constructing Utopias (2025), and the forthcoming The Future of Urban Streets (2027). His work has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, an Abe Fellowship, and three grant from the Graham Foundation, among numerous other honors.