Mediating production, teaching, and research: the role of university-run design institutes in Chinese architectural practice

The aim of this article is to investigate the role of architect-academics in China’s university-run design institutes. It then reveals the significance and predicaments of the integrative model of production, teaching, and research in China’s current historical circumstance. It argues that China’s university-run design institute is an organisation able to maximise the utilisation of design intelligence in the wilder society in such a way as to accelerate urbanisation and economic growth. Academic-architects employ material practice as an instrumental-pragmatic medium to integrate teaching and research, seeking the accumulation of cultural and economic capital both for themselves and for their institutions in the context of market economy.