Dingliang Yang

Associate Professor, Architecture

McKnight Land-Grant Professor

Dingliang Yang is an architect, urban designer, educator, and researcher whose work integrates design practice, spatial analysis, and emerging technologies to advance innovative approaches to architecture and urbanism. As founding partner of vari architects, his research-driven practice explores how cities evolve, regenerate, and adapt through new forms of urban design, with particular emphasis on sustainability, AI, and future-oriented city-making.

He is the author of several influential books on urban form and city design, including Urban Grids: Handbook for City Design and Expos as Great Urban Projects. His scholarship, design research, and built work have received international recognition, including the prestigious SOM Foundation Research Prize, the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize, the Architizer A+ Awards, and the ACSA Faculty Design Award. His projects and research have been widely published internationally and exhibited at leading venues such as the Venice Biennale, Beijing Design Week, Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, and the Weisman Art Museum.

Yang’s work spans academia, professional practice, and public engagement. He has contributed to major major civic and international initiatives, including serving on the board of the Minnesota USA Expo Bid Commission in support of the United States’ Expo 2027 bid and related planning efforts for the 2031 International Horticultural Expo.

He holds a Doctor of Design (DDes) and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design (MAUD) from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) from Zhejiang University. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where he is a faculty member in the School of Architecture, he taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 2018 to 2022.

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Credentials

Doctor of Design, Harvard University — Graduate School of Design

Master of Architecture in Urban Design with Distinction, Harvard University — Graduate School of Design

Bachelor of Architecture with Highest Honor of Chu Kochen Medal, Zhejiang University — College of Civil Engineering and Architecture

Selected Scholarship

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Books

  • Expos as Great Urban Projects (ORO Editions, forthcoming) with Joan Busquets and Michael Keller
  • Between the Past and Future: The Transformation of the Pearl River Delta (Springer, forthcoming)
  • Osaka: World Expos as the Engine for Urban Transformation (Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2021) with Joan Busquets and Yuki Takata, ISBN: 978-1-7369421-1-6
  • Urban Grids: Handbook for City Design (ORO Editions, 2019) with Joan Busquets and Michael Keller, ISBN: 978-1-940743-95-0
  • Shanghai Regeneration: Five Paradigms (Applied Research+Design Press, 2016) with Xiangning Li and Xiangming Huang, ISBN: 978-1- 939621-61- 0
  • Cities and Urban Plans in the 21st Century: Understanding the New Dynamic and Urban Planning Instruments (AMB, 2014) with Joan Busquets and Santiago Orbea, ISSN: 92339-8914

Book Chapters

  • “Designing China’s Rural Transformation”, featured in Common Frameworks: Rethinking the Development City in China, ed. by Christopher C. M. Lee (Harvard University Press, 2016), PP226-242
  • “Xiamen: A City of Three Types”, featured in Common Frameworks Part 1 Xiamen: The Megaplot, ed. By Christopher C. M. Lee (Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2013), PP66-77

Journal Articles

  • City as Subject for Design Research, in Architecture Journal, (peer reviewed, forthcoming March, 2022) Urban Design from the Perspective of Grid, in Time+Architecture, (2018) 03, PP140-143
  • In the Era of Technology and New Media, Conversation with Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample, in El Croquis, Chinese Edition (2016) 184, with Yao Xiao, PP2-15
  • Language and Text, Game, Environment and Cultural Materials: Reading Amid.Cero9, in EL Croquis, Chinese Edition (2016) 184, with Yao Xiao, PP16-19
  • Design and Production of Wind Power Generation Tower Model, in Mechanics in Engineering, 2010 32(6), with Yaoxiao, Xiang Song and Shice Yu, PP96-99

Studio Reports

  • Xiamen: Merging Urban Development and Natural Landscape (Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2022), ISBN: 978-1-7369421-2-3
  • Shanghai: Large Scale Projects To Create New Centralities (Applied Research+Design Press, 2021), ISBN: 978-1-7369421-0-9
  • Zhengzhou: From A Rail-City to A Metro-Polis (Applied Research+Design Press, 2019) with Joan Busquets, ISBN: 978-1-941806-78-4
  • Savannah: Rethinking the Multi-Scalar Capacity of the City Project (Harvard University and Mariscal, 2018) with Joan Busquets, ISBN: 978-1-532362-89-7
  • Chongqing: Searching for Regularity as A Transformative Model in the Design of the Contemporary City (Harvard University and Mariscal, 2018) with Joan Busquets, ISBN: 978-1-532362-88-0
  • Hangzhou: From Canal Grid to Maxi-block (Applied Research+Design Press, 2016) with Joan Busquets, ISBN: 978-1-939621-54-2

Exhibitions

  • Regular City: Construction of Ideas Past and Future, Curator, in Cooper Union Gallery (New York, NY), Mebane Gallery at the University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX), Kirkland Gallery at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Shenzhen Hong Kong Biennale (Shenzhen, MA)
  • Megastructuring Chongqing: in A Global Dialogue with Cities Worldwide, Curator, in ArtDepot Center (Chongqing, China)
  • Life, Dream and Architecture in Countryside, Curator, Anze Art Biennale (Anze, Shanxi, China)
  • New Issues for the Future of the City, Curator, Druker Design Gallery in Harvard GSD, Cambridge (MA), Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (Shanghai, China)
  • Barcelona, Metropolis of Cities, Executive curator, Disseny Hub/Design Museum of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
  • Chongqing: In Search of Domestic Super-structure, Curator, Chongqing Planning Exhibition Hall (Chongqing, China)
  • Zhabei New Gateway: Designing a New Global Centrality for Shanghai, Curator, Dean’s Wall, Harvard GSD (Cambridge, MA)
  • Think by Hands, Curator, History Museum of Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China)

Teaching

  • ARCH 8255 Graduate Architectural Design
  • ARCH 5410 Topics in Architectural History
  • ARCH 4410 Topics in Architectural History

Selected Honors and Awards

  • John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize, 2021
  • Second Prize, International competition for urban design and conceptual architectural design of R06-1 Plot of the Microelectronics Kechuang Street of National Western Science City, 2021
  • First Prize, Invited competition for Yuelai Design Park, 2021
  • Second Prize, International competition of architectural design for Liangjiang Collaborative Innovation Zone, 2021
  • First Prize, Invited competition for Beijing Jinzhan International Cooperation District, 2020
  • Prize for the best book in Reference & Scholarly 2020, 48th Annual Book Show of the Publishing Professionals Network, 2020
  • First Prize, “Greenway to Ideal City” International Competition for Jincheng Park, 2019
  • Second Place, Invited international competition for Shaoxing University Campus Masterplan, 2018
  • Architizer A+ Award, Finalist in Architecture+Renovation Category and Architecture+Learning Category: Hundun University Education Center, 2018
  • Architecture Masterprize, Honorable Mention in Architectural Design: The Ryde Civic Center, 2018
  • First Prize, Invited competition for Shanghai United Nation Sustainable Urban Development and Livable Garden Community, 2017
  • First Prize, Urban Design for Chongqing Luzu Temple Commercial District Redevelopment, 2016
  • First Prize, Urban Design Shanghai: International Urban Design Competition for Shanghai Railway Area, 2016
  • Urban Planning and Design Thesis Prize, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2014
  • Paul M. Heffernan Fellowship, 2013
  • Chu Kochen Medal & Chu Kochen Scholarship, Zhejiang University, 2012

Dingliang Yang

Dingliang Yang

Contact

Address
145 Rapson Hall
89 Church St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Map address
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