Doctoral Candidate
Yimei Zhang, Master of City Planning and Master of Science in Historic Preservation, University of Pennsylvania

Email: zhang.yimei@tum.de

Yimei Zhang holds a Bachelor of Economics from Beijing Foreign Studies University, and dual Masters’ degrees in City Planning and Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania. She recieved the 2022-2023 German Chancellor Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and will spent her fellowship year researching the conservation of post-war large-scale housing complexes in Germany at TUM. She is currently a lecturer at the Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment.

Before joining TUM, she worked as a heritage conservation planner in China for 6 years. Her projects focus on World Heritage nomination, management of rural settlements, and the conservation of modern heritage. Jingmai Tea Forests, the Ancient Tea-Horse Road, Kulangsu International Settlement, Yongtai Fortified Manors, and Mawei Arsenal are among some of her major projects. She believes that heritage can be a powerful tool to regenerate urban neighborhoods, empower local communities, and make better, livable places. She hopes that her research at TUM would contribute to the conservation of the built environment of our recent past, and promote heritage conversation between China and Germany.

Doctoral project
Becoming Heritage: Collective Housing Complexes in the People's Republic of China

Ongoing research
Conserving Post-war Large-scale Housing Estates: A Comparative Analysis between Germany and China