Dr Donia Zhang

Dr Donia Zhang is an author, writer, and editor of Architectural Humanities in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. She is the Director of the Neoland School of Chinese Culture, Neoland-Neolife Cross-Cultural Studies, and Chinese Culture Publishing, and the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism (JCAU), and Courtyard Architecture: along the Silk Roads, around the World.

Donia has authored four scholarly books with one forthcoming: Courtyard Houses of Beijing: Past, Present, and Future (2009/2010/2011), Schoolyard Gardening as Multinaturalism: Theory, Practice, and Product (2009), Courtyard Housing and Cultural Sustainability: Theory, Practice, and Product (2013/2016), Courtyard Housing for Health and Happiness: Architectural Multiculturalism in North America (2015/2017), and The Curriculum for Chinese Culture (forthcoming).

Moreover, she contributed three chapters in two eBooks, Dialogues of Sustainable Urbanisation: Social Science Research and Transitions to Urban Contexts (2015), and New Approaches in Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism (2020). She has also published 20 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals. Furthermore, she is a contributor of three entries and translated the Chinese lexicon for the Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World (2024, 2nd ed). WorldCat has listed most of these publications.

Donia has seven years of work experience in the architectural industry in Toronto and Chicago, and eleven years of teaching experience in higher education in Ontario, Canada. The subjects she has taught include: History of Art and Architecture, Interior Design, and AutoCAD, among others.

Donia is a graduate of Oxford Brookes University (BArch, MA, PhD) in the UK and Brock University (MEd) in Canada. She has also obtained a Verified Certificate of Achievement in The Architectural Imagination from Harvard University | edX, and a Verified Certificate of Achievement in Interpreting Vernacular Architecture in Asia from the University of Hong Kong | edX. She is a former associate at the City Institute at York University, and a visiting scholar/occasional co-instructor at McMaster University, Canada.

Keywords: Architectural humanities, Architecture and urbanism, Courtyard housing, Chinese culture, Philosophy of architecture

Keynote Speaker

"Courtyard Housing around the World: A Cross-Cultural Analysis and Contemporary Relevance" (Best Paper Award) at the 3rd International Conference of Contemporary Affairs in Architecture and Urbanism (ICCAUA), Alanya HEP University, Turkey, 2020/5/6. Cambridge Open Engage: https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2020-rb9n2-v2

Key Talks

"Courtyard Garden for Health and Happiness" at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden/Vancouver Chinese Garden, Canada, 2018/8/30.
"Courtyard Housing for Health and Happiness" at Innovation Summit on Smart City and Green Development, Innovation Round Table for Smart City, Beijing, China, 2017/7/7. Cambridge Open Engage: https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2020-6jpdq
"Courtyard Housing and Cultural Sustainability: A discussion on housing renewal and redevelopment in Beijing" at Courtyard Institute, Beijing, China, 2017/5/20.
"Courtyard Housing and Cultural Sustainability: A discussion on housing redevelopment in Suzhou" at Duke Kunshan University, China, 2017/5/10.
"Courtyard Housing and Cultural Sustainability in China" at Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, Canada, 2015/1/16. Cambridge Open Engage: https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2020-14lbc
"Adult Perceptions of Student Involvement in Schoolyard Gardening" at Faculty of Education, Brock University, Canada, 2005/10/18. Cambridge Open Engage: https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2020-j952n