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在建筑学相关学科面临深刻变革与多元挑战的当下，宁波诺丁汉大学理工学院建筑与建筑环境系始终致力于为建筑学相关教育注入创新活力，以跨学科的教学项目培养学生面向未来的复合型能力。作为这一教育理念的生动案例，宁波城市记忆实验室应运而生，自2020年12月创立以来，持续践行“走出课堂”的理念，在真实的社会参与中探索教与学边界。
宁波城市记忆实验室：从课堂到城市的建筑学“第三学习空间”
宁波城市记忆实验室由宁诺建筑与建筑环境系副教授Yat Ming Loo（卢日明博士）发起，是一个以建筑与建筑环境系学生为中心的研究与教学平台。依托理工学院本科生科研实践项目，宁波城市记忆实验室迄今已吸引近百名来自建筑学及相关专业的本科生与博士生参与，聚焦城市记忆的收集、再现与更新，将教学活动从课堂延伸至校外公众领域。
通过这一平台，学生不再是被动的学科知识接受者，而是城市叙事的主动参与者和共创者。在一次次与多元景观和社区人群的对话中，宁波城市记忆实验室构筑起一座连接校园与社会的桥梁，将城市本身视为学习的“实验室”。至今为止的十七项城市行走、五项公共展览及数次延伸研学活动，宁波城市记忆实验室不断验证建筑学教育“具身认知、社会参与、跨界创新”的各种可能。
跨越边界的建筑学探索——看城市，可以不止一种方式
今年，在理工学院与建筑与建筑环境系的支持下，宁波城市记忆实验室以新书发布为契机，于上半年推出了一系列精彩纷呈的跨界活动。
4月19日， “不止看见城市（Beyond Seeing Cities）” 对谈活动在上海西岸梦中心群岛BOOKS圆满举行。此次活动与宁波城市记忆实验室所发布的新书《记忆是一种想象力：再现城市记忆的思考与实验》的发布有机联动，围绕 “如何看城市”这一核心命题展开跨地域、跨背景的开放对话。十位来自不同领域的嘉宾——包括建筑实践、社区营造、学术研究、城市行走以及宁诺建筑与建筑环境系学生——与六十余位宁诺师生及上海市民共聚一堂，通过一场对谈、一场迷你展和一场城市行走，在跨文化与多元视角的氛围中开启了关于城市感知、行走与记忆的集体漫游。这不仅是一场新书分享会，更是宁诺建筑与建筑环境系教育成果的一次生动凝聚。
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宁波城市记忆实验室的共创集《记忆是一种想象力：再现城市记忆的思考与实验》于2025年8月正式出版。全书分为城市展览、城市行走、城市设计、城市叙述与城市记忆的探索之路五个篇章，系统记录了宁波城市记忆实验室自2020年成立至2024年间的主要活动与学术思考。书中秉持宁波城市记忆实验室以学生为本、包容多元对话、深入参与社会的宗旨，着重呈现学生成员的创作与感悟，收录了大量活动现场影像，生动还原了 “校园—社会课堂” 的独特面貌。
同期，值此世界读书日（4月23日），“城市好好看”（Cities, Nice to See You!）主题书展在宁诺图书馆一楼公共展区正式开展，由宁波城市记忆实验室携手宁诺图书馆及理工学院建筑与建筑环境系共同举办。书展以《记忆是一种想象力》中城市行走、展览与叙述三个章节为线索，精选图书馆内跨学科、跨领域的城市研究图书与新作并置，启发师生在阅读中有意识、持续且带着好奇地观察城市，重新发现城市可被观察与学习的多种有趣可能性。展览现仍在进行中并将持续至5月21日。
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紧随书展开幕，建筑与建筑环境系于4月28举办了“蓝图之上（Beyond the Blueprint）”深度对谈，聚焦建筑与建筑环境系未来实践与职业前景。对谈由建筑与建筑环境系教师卢日明博士、张愚聪博士及陈飞樾共同主持，邀请分别既有顶尖名校（在哈佛大学、麻省理工大学、康奈尔大学及哥伦比亚大学）求学经历、又具备深厚教学与跨界实践背景的三位嘉宾Hisham Youssef、Helena Rong博士与李雅伦同宁诺学子分享专业经验。对谈从职业经验与反思出发，拓展对建筑学实践的传统认知——从设计延伸至媒体、展览、策展、城市行走等跨界空间实践中。对谈借鉴“空间能动性（Spatial Agency）”概念，通过探讨建筑学思维如何在多元环境中激发创造力，为学子们提供了超越市场的行业认知视角，鼓励他们学习培养多种技能、在变局中寻找新的定位与可能性。
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置身真实情境中的多面训练
值得关注的是，上述多场活动均由建筑学专业师生团队协同策划与执行，展现出宁诺学子多维技能与素养的培育：
参与社会研学与跨文化视野：
学生作为主体独立完成田野调查、内容策划、活动实施等全流程，最终产出学术著作。同时，通过校内外实践，学生有机会与来自不同领域及背景的社会群体对话与学习，培养了学生的跨文化视野及出色公共组织能力。
跨越学科的批判思维与人文关怀：
学生对城市与建筑空间的思考从物理形态深入社会、历史与情感维度，在切身体验中积淀深厚的文化思考素养与批判性思维。
负责“不止看见城市”与“城市好好看”两场活动的建筑与建筑环境师生团队：
Design Leads设计负责人：
Xinyi Li李馨怡，Jichen Fan范纪晨
Design Team Members设计团队成员：
Danqi Ding丁丹琪，Jiayu Chen陈佳钰，Siyu Wen闻思语，Kai Lin林恺， Jiang Jinag蒋桨，Xiaolei Sun孙晓蕾，Yanxi Wu吴彦熙，Yixin Shi石依鑫
Supervisor指导：
Dr Yat Ming Loo卢日明博士
结语
该系今年上半年一系列活动的成功举办及《记忆是一种想象力》的出版，既是对宁诺建筑学子综合能力的一次集中展现，更向学界与业界昭示：宁波诺丁汉大学建筑与建筑环境系正通过扎实而创新的教学实践，积极参与并引领未来设计教育的深刻讨论。展望未来，学院还将继续支持建筑学创新教学平台的发展，为建筑学相关教育注入持久的生命力。
（扫码关注宁波城市记忆实验室获取更多活动信息；如有兴趣，可联系宁波城市记忆微信公众号后台购买《记忆是一种想象力》）
One Book, Two Exhibitions, Two Dialogues:
UNNC Architecture community explores new possibilities in education through cross-disciplinary practice
At the time when architectural industry is undergoing transformation and facing challenges, the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FoSE) and the Department of Architecture and Built Environment (ABE) at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) continue to inject innovation into architectural pedagogy through interdisciplinary teaching initiatives that cultivate future-oriented multiple talents.
Founded in December 2020, the Ningbo Urban Memory Lab (NUML) could be a vivid example of this educational vision, and has consistently moved “beyond the classroom,” exploring boundaries of teaching and learning in architecture through real-world social engagement.
NUML: A “Third Space” for Architectural Learning from Classroom to City
Initiated by Dr Yat Ming Loo, Associate Professor in the ABE Department, NUML is a student-centred research and teaching platform. Up to now, NUML has engaged nearly one hundred undergraduate and doctoral students from architecture and related disciplines supported by FoSE’s Undergraduate Research Practices initiative. The platform focuses on the collection, representation, and renewal of urban memory, extending learning activities from campus into public urban spaces.
Through NUML, students are no longer passive recipients of disciplinary knowledge, but active participants and co-creators of urban narratives. By engaging with diverse urban landscapes and communities, NUML has built a bridge between campus and society, transforming the city itself into a living “laboratory” for learning.
To date, NUML has organised seventeen city walks, five public exhibitions, and numerous extended research activities, continuously demonstrating the possibilities of architectural education grounded in social engagement, and interdisciplinary innovation.
Exploring Architecture Across Boundaries: There Is More Than One Way to See the City
With the support of FoSE and ABE, NUML launched a series of interdisciplinary events during the first half of this year, centred around the launch of its new publication.
On 19 April, the dialogue event Beyond Seeing Cities was successfully held at Archipelago BOOKS at West Bund Dream Centre in Shanghai can became a vivid showcase of the architectural education of UNNC.
Integrated with the launch of NUML’s new publication Memory as Imagination: Reflections and Experiments in Representing Urban Memory, the event revolved around the central question: How do we see the city?
Ten guests from diverse fields — including architectural practice, community engagement, academic research, citywalk organisations, and UNNC Architecture and Built Environment students — gathered alongside more than sixty UNNC faculty members, students, and Shanghai residents. Through a public dialogue, a mini exhibition, and an urban walk, participants embarked on a collective exploration of urban perception, movement, and memory within a cross-cultural atmosphere and multi-perspective atmosphere. This was not just a book launch event, but a vivid embodiment of the educational achievements of UNNC’s Department of Architecture and Built Environment.
NUML’ publication Memory as Imagination: Reflections and Experiments in Representing Urban Memory is officially published in August 2025. The book consists of five sections of urban exhibitions, city walks, urban design, urban narratives, and the journey of exploring urban memory, systematically documenting NUML’s major activities and intellectual reflections from 2020 to 2024.
Reflecting NUML’s commitment to student-centred learning, inclusive dialogue, and deep social engagement, the publication highlights students’ creative works and reflections while incorporating extensive photographic documentation that vividly captures the unique learning landscape between “campus and society.”
In conjunction with World Book Day on 23 April, the themed book exhibition Cities, Nice to See You! opened at the public exhibition area on the first floor of the UNNC Library, which is co-organised by NUML, The Library, and FoSE ABE. Taking inspiration from three chapters of Memory is Imagination — urban walking, exhibitions, and narratives, the exhibition juxtaposes interdisciplinary books on urban studies from the library collection with the new published work, encouraging faculty members and students to observe cities intentionally, persistently, and curiously through reading, rediscovering the many fascinating ways cities can be seen and learned from. The exhibition is currently on view and will run until 21 May.
Following the book exhibition opening, ABE hosted dialogue activity of Beyond the Blueprint on 28 April, focusing on future architectural practice and professional prospects.
Moderated by Dr Yat Ming Loo, Dr Yucong Zhang, and Feiyue Chen from ABE, the event invited three guests of Hisham Youssef, Dr Helena Rong, and Yalun Li — graduated from institutions including Harvard University, MIT, Cornell University, and Columbia University – to share their professional experiences with UNNC students.
Starting from professional experiences and reflections, the discussion expanded conventional understandings of architectural practice beyond design itself, exploring interdisciplinary spatial practices such as media, exhibitions, curatorial work, and urban walking. Drawing on the concept of Spatial Agency, the dialogue examined how architectural thinking can generate creativity across diverse contexts. It also offered students broader perspectives beyond the market-oriented understanding of the profession, encouraging them to cultivate multiple skills and seek new possibilities amid ongoing changes and challenges.
The Multi-Dimensional Learning in Real-World Contexts
Notably, all above activities were collaboratively organised and conducted by ABE faculty and students. The mode demonstrates the ABE’s emphasis on cultivating students’ diverse skills and competencies:
Socially Engaged Learning and Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Students independently participated throughout the entire process of vary activities — from field research, content designing to event implementation, and ultimately contributing to academic publications. Through both on-campus and off-campus practice, students engaged in dialogue and collaboration with individuals from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds, developing strong cross-cultural perspectives and public organisational abilities.
Critical Thinking and Humanistic Awareness Across Disciplines
Students’ reflections on cities and architectural spaces extended beyond physical forms into social, historical, and emotional dimensions. Through immersive experiences, they cultivated profound cultural awareness and critical thinking skills.
The Abe faculty and student team behind the events of Beyond Seeing Cities and Cities, Nice to See You!
Design Leads：Xinyi Li，Jichen Fan
Design Team Members：Danqi Ding，Jiayu Chen，Siyu Wen，Kai Lin， Jiang Jinag， Xiaolei Sun，Yanxi Wu，Yixin Shi
Supervisor：Dr Yat Ming Loo
Conclusion
ABE’s series of the events and NUML’s publication of Memory is Imagination, not only showcase the comprehensive capabilities of UNNC architecture students, but also demonstrate to both academia and industry that the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China is actively contributing to and shaping critical discussions on architectural education for the future through grounded yet innovative pedagogical practices.
Looking ahead, FoSE and ABE will continue supporting the development of creative teaching platforms in architecture, injecting lasting vitality into architectural education.
(Scan the QR code to follow NUML for more event information. Interested readers may also contact the NUML WeChat account to purchase Memory is Imagination）
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宁波诺丁汉大学理工学院
图文来源：Xinyi Li，Tracy Zhang，NUML
电子编辑：Xinyu Ma
