Jianfei Zhu is a theorist and a critic in architecture with a focus on design and its relation to culture, society and politics, with China as a primary case. He has conducted research on Beijing of the Ming and Qing dynasties and a critical history of modern Chinese architecture from the 1720s to the present. He is actively engaged in design criticism concerning the current polemic practice in China. He publishes papers, edits journal issues and chairs symposiums in architecture theory – on topics of critical architecture, east-west dialogue, and design thinking for the everyday.

Studied in China (Tianjin) and the UK (University College London), he now teaches in Australia (University of Melbourne) and collaborates with universities in China including Southeast University of Nanjing. He has delivered 70 public lectures in the UK, USA, China and other countries, at institutions including MIT, AA and the Berlage. He is the author of Chinese Spatial Strategies: Imperial Beijing (Routledge, 2004) and Architecture of Modern China: a Historical Critique (Routledge, 2009), and the editor of Sixty Years of Chinese Architecture 1949-2009: History, Theory and Criticism (Beijing: CABP, 2009). He has published essays in AA Files, Journal of Architecture, and Harvard Design Magazine.