This joint design workshop with the School of Architecture at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) explored building materials in the extremely cold climate in Northeast China. Under the guidance of Prof. Luo Peng of HIT and our Prof. Zhu Jingxiang, the workshop used iterative methods to conduct discovery- and application-oriented architectural experiments, with a focus on construction with ice and snow.

In December 2019, a group of MArch and PhD students from CUHK visited Harbin for a one-week collaborative design studio, during which they joined HIT students in research seminars, field trips and meetings with local professional designers. There, they had also taken part in the ice-construction competition organised annually by HIT, visited the construction site of the Ice and Snow World festival, as well as examples of historical and modern architecture in the city, including the famous Saint Sophia Cathedral and Harbin Opera House. The outcomes of the joint design workshop were subsequently presented and exhibited at HIT and CUHK.