Urban Development and Design

Zhizhe Yu, MUDD, Graduated 2002

“After receiving my Bachelor of Architecture, I began to work as an assistant architect in one of the large architectural firms in Beijing. The everyday reality of practice however led me to reconsider my dreams – I wanted to try something else in a design related field.

“During my university years in Bejing, Chinese cities began to change very dramatically and I felt there was a big and immediate need for urban design. It was exciting to see the fast urbanisation and modernization or our wonderful city, but also tragic to see the planning mistakes and the loss of its special character. I believed that studying urban design could help me go beyond architecture itself, and look at ‘the bigger picture’ in the design world.

“I spent time researching and comparing all the Australian universities, accepting the offer from UNSW Built Environment’s Master of Urban Design and Development (MUDD) Program, as I felt that it offered the most interesting and thoughtful courses as well as the best teaching resources.

“The program was challenging yet also extremely rewarding. The highlight for me was the MUDDexhibition night. It was a wonderful feeling to see our hard work beautifully displayed and viewed by so many professionals outside of the faculty and the Univesity.

“After graduation I worked for several Sydney firms including Peddle Thorpe & Walker Architects for 3 years. I was involved in many significant projects from master plans to detail documentation in Australia and overseas - including the Beijing 2008 National Swimming Centre and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Athletes Village.

“In January 2007 I accepted a position in the New York Office of Kohn Pederson Fox, and have been fortunate enough to work on a wide range of career advancing projects including the Marina Bay Financial Center (Singapore), the PingAn International Financial Center (Shenzhen, China) and the Hyundai Headquarter Design Competition (Seoul, Korea).

“Early 2010 I was promoted to Associate Principal, and my goals for now and for the future are to keep learning architectural and urban design, keep traveling and seeing architecture and cities, and ultimately I hope I will become a good architect, and be able to start designing and building projects by myself.

“ The significance of my urban design studies in the MUDD program have stimulated and contributed my love of cities, and has grounded my understanding of how architecture is made through the process of urban development.”