The Department of Architecture and Built Environment (ABE) is at the forefront to enhance students’ learning experience through joint initiatives and collaborations with national top universities. This Academic Year the Architectural Design Studio 2 & 3 Unit 1, led by Eugenio Mangi, Andrea Palmioli, and Qian Shiyun - 钱诗韵, has initiated the UNNC X CAA Joint Design Studio (JDS) with the Undergraduate Thesis Project module led by Su Yimin - 苏弋旻 from the Department of Environmental Art at the China Academy of Art (CAA).

The idea informing the UNNC X CAA JDS is that a cross‐cultural collaborative environment redefines students' way of thinking, boosts peer-learning and encourages them to develop original perspectives about urban, building and space design and sustainable strategies by working on the same site in Hangzhou and sharing moments of debate through joint lectures and design reviews.

The UNNC X CAA JDS is part of a larger collaboration framework between the two departments fostered by Prof Ali Cheshmehzangi, head of ABE, and Professor Kang Yin - 康胤, dean of the Department of Environmental Art, involving research and teaching activities that started with the Horizontal Metropolis Yangtze River Delta: Entangling Capitals Summer School last August and that was further strengthened with the Environments Analysis International Workshop that took place between September 15^th and October 16^th 2022. This activity was conceived and developed by a cross-university team composed by Eugenio Mangi, Andrea Palmioli, Maycon Sedrez, Su Yimin and Boning Luo - 罗泊宁, with the participation of Giaime Botti. It targeted the strengthening of the analytical skills of CAA undergraduate and master students to disentangle and render the complex relations underlying the urban environment through an accurate investigation work of the Wushan Hill area in Hangzhou.