Qinyi Zhang (1985, Hangzhou, China) is an architect and urbanist in Studio Paola Viganò (before 2015 as Studio Secchi-Viganò) since 2009. He is the leading designer and project manager responsible for important urban and landscape projects and exhibitions.
From 2018 to 2020, he was a post-doc researcher at the Lab-U and Habitat Research Center in EPFL, Lausanne, working on research projects including the Greater Geneva Consultation, and in charge of the preparation and management of the EPFL part of “TOD-IS-RUR Transit Oriented Development for Inclusive and Sustainable Rural-Urban Regions”—a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)—Innovative Training Network (ITN) project. Meanwhile, he was teaching at the design studio of the Master Semester 1/2 led by Prof. Paola Viganò.
He received his Ph.D. in Urbanism at IUAV Venezia in 2018, and his thesis “Elements in Desakota, Yangtze River Delta, China” has been awarded the grade “Excellent”in May 2018. Part of his work was exhibited in the collateral event “Horizontal Metropolis” at the Venice Biennale 2016. He undertook a European Postgraduate Master in Urbanism (EMU) in TU Delft and IUAV Venezia and obtained a bachelor’s degree in architecture in Zhejiang University, China.
He was a jury member and external critic in master’s programs and workshops in ULB, IUAV Venezia KU Leuven, and GSD at Harvard University. He lectured in TU Delft (NL),CityU (Hong Kong CN), Sint-Lucas Ghent (BE), KU Leuven (BE), and Zhejiang University (CN) among other universities.
