Institute for Sustainable Industries and Livable Cities, Victoria University, Melbourne, AustraliaArchitectural history and theory; Architectural history in China; Vernacular architecture; Sustainability in the built environment; Architectural design
Dr Mengbi Li holds a PhD in Built Environment from the University of New South Wales, Sydney. As one of the members of the pedagogic revolution, First Year Model of Victoria University, Mengbi joined VU on a permanent basis in 2018.
Mengbi is passionate about exploring and implementing innovative teaching methods and curriculum design to address pedagogic challenges and help students reach their full potential. She is interested in nurturing curiosity in her students and an enduring enthusiasm for the discipline of built environment in today’s rapidly changing society.
Mengbi’s research interest is in promoting an understanding of the history of architecture, with a particular focus on the pre-modern architecture and settlements in China. She seeks pathways to intellectual understanding and response in architecture from its own history. She is striving for a critical rethink of a series of dogmas, mind-sets and vigorously imposed goals in the production of cities and buildings.
Currently, Mengbi’s research is contributing better practices for low-carbon living and sustainability to architecture by challenging existing principles that clash with these objectives.
This special issue aims to enhance mutual recognition and understanding between China and other civilizations through exploring their shared values and traditions especially related to architecture. There are potentially intriguing connections between different civilizations in the world, for example, between vernacular Chinese culture and Indigenous cultures in Australia, America, and other regions, or between the civilizations of Ancient China, Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, Ancient Peru, Ancient Greece, and so on. An exploration of these connections not only helps to establish bonds between different parts of the world, but also contributes to a discourse on the impact and embodiment of the shared value in architecture.
We welcome comparative studies of Chinese architecture, urban fabric, or settlement patterns with counterparts from other regions. We aspire to form a discourse on the essential kernel of architecture and/or settlements shared across different regions and examine how they can serve as bridges for future dialogues on this topic
The extraordinary life and work of Arata Isozaki (1931 – 2022): Seven decades of visionary architecture