Prof. Zengfeng Zhao invited me to Tongji University. What I observed there reflects a different positioning of research. At Tongji, real projects and urban conditions closely connect research, testing findings against practical constraints rather than idealized assumptions. Within the School of Civil Engineering, this approach creates a continuous interaction between research, design, and implementation.

📽️ Watch the vlog:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPAZUxTqMc8

🏛️ What makes Tongji different: Ideas move quickly from discussion to testing, and then from testing to application. There is no long gap between theory and practice. The question is simple: Does it work at scale?

🌍 This is not only about China
Through GLOBE – Global Consensus on Sustainability in the Built Environment, this work connects to a much larger system. More than 5,000 experts across 150+ countries, addressing a sector responsible for over 20% of global CO₂ emissions. Collaboration with colleagues such as Prof. @Karen Scrivener (EPFL) and Lisbeth M. Ottosen (DTU) reinforces this point. The transition is global. But it will only happen where research, materials, and cities meet at scale.

🔬 What changes for researchers
Access to measured data, not simplified models. A loop of research, implementation, and optimization occurs over several months. PhD work aligned with national carbon targets, not isolated academic questions. You are not expected to publish alone. You are expected to deliver results that scale.

📊 Our collaboration: Low-carbon Materials and Green Construction (2024–2026)
Low-carbon materials. Circular construction. Real deployment. We focus on reducing embodied carbon, developing disassembly and reuse strategies, and defining how value is retained across building life cycles. This includes advancing methods to quantify disassembly, a key gap in making circular construction operational.

📚 Two concrete outcomes
Board Member: Journal of Low-carbon Materials and Green Construction https://lnkd.in/eSTDqE4i
Publication: Disassembly calculation criteria and methods https://lnkd.in/ecYfUQWv

🎯 For students and researchers: If you are serious about low-carbon construction, materials, and applied research, you need to understand this shift. Tongji is not just a university. It is a place where research meets urban reality at scale.

💬 Are you considering studying or collaborating in China? 📽️ I documented the visit, research, and teaching activities to provide a realistic view of academic work in China.

📽️ Watch the vlog:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPAZUxTqMc8

📚 Learn more about our research: https://www.sbd.uliege.be/
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