Zhengfeng Wang
| Biography: Zhengfeng received her Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Tongji University in her native Shanghai in 2014. She has also spent time in Barcelona, where she became interested in market buildings and received her Master's degree in Architecture on Contemporary Projects from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in 2016. In 2017, she graduated from Tongji University with a Master's degree in Architecture on Architectural History and Theory. Zhengfeng was conferred with her doctoral degree in 2022. She is a former residential scholar at UCD Humanities Institute and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the project "Balancing Heritage and Sustainability in the Retrofit of Postwar Curtain Wall Highrises" funded by a Coalesce Grant from the Irish Research Council. |
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| Research: Zhengfeng’s PhD dissertation is titled “Institutionalising Modern Consumption: Market Buildings and Department Stores in Chinese Cities, 1930s-1950s”. It includes case studies on three government-sponsored commercial buildings in interwar Shanghai, British colonial Hong Kong, and Beijing under Communist rule. Their establishment not only constructed cleaner, more spacious and well-equipped environments by introducing the latest technology but also conveyed the promise of enhanced public welfare. Meanwhile, the ‘service’ that they provided was conditioned by the order imposed on trade activities that in turn led to negotiations among stakeholders. This research project reveals the tensions between social-economic imperatives and ideological positions varying from free market to state capitalism, thus contributing to a nuanced understanding of the various impetuses that transformed the commercial landscape in Chinese society. |
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| Keywords: Chinese cities; Modern architecture; Commerical landscape; Political economy. |
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| Supervisor: Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty |
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