Trained as an architect, Ting Chen holds a PhD degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the ETH Zurich, received her B.Arch & M.Arch degrees in Tsinghua University, Beijing. As an architect, She has worked on projects of architectural design, urban design, monument preservation as well as neighbourhood revitalization. To pursue a career in academia, she worked as junior researcher for the chair for the history of urban design in ETH Zurich, focusing on the historical study of designed urban elements. In 2011, she joined FCL as a doctoral researcher in the module Urban Design Strategies and Resources, on the project Rochor + A Diverse Neighborhood, as well as her own dissertation work geared towards the urban transformation mechanism of Shenzhen, China's first Special Economic Zone, to explore how the transitional socialist State-Owned Enterprises shaped the city in different ways under a booming semi-market-driven, semi-command economy. Now, she is working as project coordinator 

Research  

Ting Chen’s research interests include urban design strategy, post-socialist urban transformation, urban politics,  rural-urban interaction, and rural transformation under a booming semi-market-driven, semi-command economy.

Exhibitions & Conferences

• 2012  Conference Paper “Urban Self Regeneration, the transitional SOE Lands in Shenzhen”, The 6th International Association for China Planning, Wuhan, PRChina
• 2012   Conference Paper “Urban Self-Revaluation: An Alternative Way of Urban Regeneration with State-Owned Enterprises as Mediators, Shenzhen, China,” UC Berkeley Haas Junior Scholars Conference: Multi-disciplinary Interrogations of State and Society in China, Berkeley, USA
• 2012 with Ying Zhou, Sonja Berthold and Edda Ostertag, Table Talk “Diversifying your city, cases from East Asia”, Re/Art the Urban Conference, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2013 Conference Paper “State-owned Enterprise (SOE) –driven Urban Redevelopment: top down and bottom up cases in Shenzhen”, Harvard Yenching Institute Advanced Training Programme “China Urban Studies: A Comparative Perspective”, Shanghai Normal University, PRChina
• 2013/2014 Exhibition "URBAN BORDER" Hong-Kong/Shenzhen BI-CITY BIENNALE OF URBANISM ARCHITECTURE, Hong-Kong/Shenzhen
• 2014 Conference Paper " 'State' outside the 'state': state-owned enterprises’ diverse space-making behaviors in China’s post-socialism urban transformation, with case studies at Shenzhen Special Economic Zone" Conference "Socialist and Post-Socialist Urbanizations: Architecture, Land and Property Rights",  Eesti Kunstiakadeemia, Tallinn, Estonia
• 2014 Workshop Paper "Special Buffer Zones: Transforming SOE Lands as Migrant Trade Hubs, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, China" Workshop: Mobilities and Exceptional Spaces in Asia, NUS Asia Research Institute, Singapore

Education

Doctor of Science, ETH Zurich, B.Arch. and M.Arch., Tsinghua University (Beijing)