Jingwen Zhao

2014 winner

Jingwen Zhao is from Xi’an in China. She has always been drawn to the beauty of traditional architecture and urban space, studying Chinese Traditional Architecture at Peking University, graduating in 2012, and then at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana for a three year Master of Architecture, focusing on Classical Architecture and Traditional Urban Study. She applied for the ADAM Architecture Travel Scholarship when she was in Rome for a semester during her Masters. Her visit to the water towns inspired the eventual subject for her university thesis. Since graduating, Jingwen has worked as a junior architect at Robert Stern Architects in New York, as a landscape architect in Shenzhen and as an architect at BC&D in Hong Kong. Since April 2019 she has been at P&T Architects and Engineers in Hong Kong.

Of the ADAM Architecture Travel Scholarship she says: ‘The process of making the trip, completing the study and then giving a presentation in London has expanded my knowledge and experience of traditional urban study and helped me to develop. It was the first time that I had run a study project independently through to completion, and I relished the challenge. The process proved to be challenging, but very rewarding, giving me the confidence to embrace future independent projects. Though the trip itself only lasted one month, the experience and benefits it gave me, from travelling to Winchester and London and on to the water towns, will live with me forever.’