{"id":365664,"date":"2026-03-30T10:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T10:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/365664\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T10:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T10:25:16","slug":"cambridge-architecture-pioneer-francois-penz-leaves-uk-after-more-than-four-decades-to-join-university-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/365664\/","title":{"rendered":"Cambridge architecture pioneer Francois Penz leaves UK after more than four decades to join university in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nanjing University announced on March 17 that Penz, an emeritus professor at Cambridge, has joined the university in a full-time role. He previously served as director of the Martin Center for Architectural and Urban Studies, a fellow of Darwin College, and director of the Design, Visualization and Communication Digital Laboratory at Cambridge, the South China Morning Post reported.<\/p>\n

Penz, 76, a pioneer in the interdisciplinary field of architecture and film, has worked closely with Nanjing University in recent years, delivering lectures and organizing architectural film exhibitions in China. He was selected for China\u2019s National Leading Talent Programme in 2025, reflecting his long-standing collaboration with Chinese institutions prior to the move.<\/p>\n

In a 2025 interview at Darwin College in the U.K., he highlighted his academic ties with China and expressed appreciation for his students. “Thanks to my wonderful PhD students, I\u2019ve had a lot of collaboration with China. I\u2019ve been to Nanjing University many times, and I\u2019m going back in the spring to continue a research project with one of my former PhD students, who is now the dean of the faculty there.”<\/p>\n

\"French<\/p>\n

French professor Francois Pen. Photo courtesy of University of Cambridge<\/p>\n

Born in France, Penz studied architecture at the \u00c9cole Polytechnique F\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lausanne in Switzerland in the early 1970s, where he began integrating computer science into architectural research, a focus that later defined his doctoral work.<\/p>\n

He earned a doctorate in architecture in 1983 and continued postdoctoral research at Cambridge before joining its architecture department in 1988. During his early years there, he introduced Apple computers into architectural research and authored “Computers in Architecture,” contributing to the discipline\u2019s digital transformation.<\/p>\n

Penz is also regarded as a leading figure in establishing film and architecture as a formal academic field. In 1995, he organized Cambridge\u2019s first conference on the subject, which led to the creation of the Cambridge University Moving Image Studio in 1998 and the MPhil program in Architecture and the Moving Image.<\/p>\n

His work also advanced the use of photography and moving images as tools in architectural design, shaping new approaches to visual representation in the field.<\/p>\n

In 2009, the French government awarded him the Chevalier de l\u2019Ordre des Palmes Acad\u00e9miques, one of France\u2019s highest academic honors, in recognition of his contributions to education and scholarship.<\/p>\n

Throughout his career, Penz has led interdisciplinary research integrating design, visual storytelling, and digital technologies, including projects funded by the U.K.\u2019s Arts and Humanities Research Council and the European Union\u2019s Sixth Framework Programme.<\/p>\n

He served as head of Cambridge\u2019s architecture department from 2017 to 2019 and retired in 2023 at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since retiring, he has continued research focused on developing digital platforms for cross-cultural spatial studies, a direction he is expected to expand further at Nanjing University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nanjing University announced on March 17 that Penz, an emeritus professor at Cambridge, has joined the university in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,176300,438,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-365664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-cambridge-architecture-pioneer-francois-penz-leaves-uk-after-more-than-four-decades-to-join-university-in-china-vnexpress-international","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}