Lu, Xiaoxuan

BArch SCI-Arc; MLA Harvard; PhD Peking
ContactAUHIStudiosResearch
Xiaoxuan Lu is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Landscape Architecture, where she teaches landscape history and theory, and design studios. She has practiced in the fields of architecture and landscape architecture at Turenscape in Beijing, West 8 in Rotterdam, Bjarke Ingels Group in Copenhagen, and SWA in Los Angeles. For Turenscape, she recently worked as the project manager for Zaryadye Park International Competition, which envisions Zaryadye Park as an urban ecosystem that provides multiple eco-services to the city and people.
Her research focuses on the cultural landscape and geography of conflict, particularly in transboundary regions. Applying analytical cartography, photography and video in her research, Xiaoxuan aims to reveal the hidden layers of landscape where multiple tensions converge. In her MLA thesis, “Mining as Demining,” she focused on the remediation of post-war landscape in Laos PDR, which won her an Award of Excellence from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2012. Her doctoral dissertation, “Reconceptulizing China’s Northwestern Frontiers: Arid Land, The Corps, and Public Water Works,” examines the relationship between water and power in China’s militia-stationed northwestern frontier, and how discourses of ecology have influenced and problematized notions of “State” and “wasteland.”
Her writing and research has been published in LEAP (2016.3), Calvert Journal (2015.11), ON SITE Review (2015.9), Journal of Natural Resources(2014.11), Human Geography (2014.8), The Traveler (2014.9), and Acta Ecologica Sinica (2014.3). Her research and design work has been exhibited internationally in “Crossing Kazakhstan: The Monumentality of Linear Landscape” at Harvard University in Cambridge (2016.4-10), “Dialogues on Urbanization Exhibition” at IIT in Chicago (2015.3-5), and 22nd International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire, France (2013.5-11).
Xiaoxuan received her Bachelor of Architecture from Southern California Institute of Architecture, and Master in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University. She was a PhD Fellow at Harvard University during the academic years of 2014-2016, and received her PhD in Human Geography from Peking University in early 2017.

Editorship

Xiaoxuan Lu serves as an editor and columnist for Landscape Architecture Frontiers 景觀設計學 since 2012, which won an Honor? ward in the Communications category of 2015 ASLA professional awards. Her “Experiments and Processes” column showcases a range of speculative design project. It functions as a platform for exploring narratives behind experimental methodologies, representations and results, while projecting a future for landscape architecture that is positioned between research, storytelling, and design.
2020 Issue #1: Ecological Restoration through Territorial Spatial Planning Lu, Xiaoxuan. “Green Utopias.” Landscape Architecture Frontiers 8, no. 1 (2020): 126-127.
http://dx.doi.org/10.15302/J-LAF-1-050014
2020 Issue #2: Children and Urban Environments
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “The Well-Being of Children and Youth in an Uncertain World.” Landscape Architecture Frontiers 8, no. 2 (2020): 142?143.
https://doi.org/10.15302/J-LAF-1-050018
2020 Issue #3: Nature-Based Solutions and Urban Resilience
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “Embracing Indigenous and Local Knowledge for Social-Ecological Resilience.” Landscape Architecture Frontiers 8, no. 3 (2020): 146-147.
https://doi.org/10.15302/J-LAF-1-050021
2020 Issue #4: Prototype Study in Landscape Architecture
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “It is Different This Time.” Landscape Architecture Frontiers 8, no. 4 (2020): 150-151.
https://doi.org/10.15302/J-LAF-1-050024
2020 Issue #5: Urban Governance and Spatial Quality Improvement
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “The Era of Mass-Authorship.” Landscape Architecture Frontiers 8, no. 5 (2020): 164-165.
https://doi.org/10.15302/J-LAF-1-050027
2020 Issue #6: Human Desires, Social Demands, and Landscape Future
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “Alternative Territorial Strategies.” Landscape Architecture Frontiers 8, no. 6 (2020): 132-133.
https://doi.org/10.15302/J-LAF-0-050003

Selected Publications

Forthcoming
Lu, Xiaoxuan. China’s Borderlands in Transition. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2022.
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “Chapter 26: Reservoir Urbanism in Shenzhen.” In The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Cities and Landscapes in the Pacific Rim, edited by Yizhao Yang and Anne Taufen. Abingdon: Routledge, 2022. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Sustainable-Cities-and-Landscape-in-the-Pacific/Yang-Taufen/p/book/49
2020-21
Kelly, Ashley S. and Xiaoxuan Lu. Critical Landscape Planning during the Belt and Road Initiative. Singapore: Springer Nature, 2021. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-4067-4
Lu, Xiaoxuan, Susanne Trumpf and Ivan Valin. Interstitial Hong Kong: exploring the small and marginal landscapes of high-density urbanism. Berlin: Jovis Verlag, 2021. https://www.jovis.de/en/books/details/product/interstitial-hong-kong.html
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “China and Her Return to the Ocean.” In Terra-Sorta-Firma: Atlas of Urbanism on Reclaimed Land, edited by Fadi Masoud, 169-189. Actar, 2021. https://actar.com/product/terra-sorta-firma/
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “My Love from the Mountain: Contingent bordering processes at Mount Changbai/Baekdu.” Area 53, no. 3 (2021): 511-521. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/area.12706
Lu, Xiaoxuan 陆小璇. 浪漫地理学: 追寻崇高景观 [Romantic Geography: In Search of the Sublime Landscape by Yi-Fu Tuan] (Translated Book). Yilin Press, 2021.
http://www.yilin.com/About/YiLinMemorabilia
2018-19
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “Imaged and Imagined Infrastructure.” Transfers 9, no. 1 (2019): 103-107.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/trans.2019.090109
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “Divergent Memories of Tumen Shan-shui.” European Journal of Korean Studies 19, no. 1 (2019): 229-274.
http://dx.doi.org/10.33526/ejks.**.229
Seraji, Nasrine, Sony Devabhaktuni and Xiaoxuan Lu. From Crisis to Crisis: Debates on why architecture criticism matters today. Actar, 2019.
http://actar.com/product/from-crisis-to-crisis/
2016-17
Lu, Xiaoxuan,? Ivan Valin and Susanne Trumpf. “Interstitial Hong Kong.” Landscape Architecture Frontiers 5, 3 (2017): 121-131.
https://doi.org/10.15302/J-LAF-**?
Lu, Xiaoxuan 陆小璇. 泥土: 文明的侵蚀 [Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery] (Translated Book). Yilin Press, 2017.
http://www.yilin.com/About/YiLinMemorabilia
2014-15
Austin, Tyler, Xiaoxuan Lu and David Ross. “Agro-Urbanism: Peri-Urban Developments.” Landscape Architecture Frontiers 3, 1 (2015): 123-135.
http://journal.hep.com.cn/laf/EN/Y2015/V3/I1/123
Lu, Xiaoxuan 陆小璇. “Sand-Land [沙-陆].” LEAP [艺术界], Fall 2015, 50-57.
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “Landscape Noir.” On Site Review 33 (2015): 48-49.
http://www.onsitearchive.ca/33land/xiaoxuan-lu-landscape-noir-the-unexploded-terrain-of-laos.html
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “On Formation of Yi-Fu Tuan’s Thoughts on Humanistic Geography.” Human Geography 29, 4 (2014): 13-18+2.
http://rwdl.xisu.edu.cn/CN/Y2014/V29/I4/13
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “Review of Transnational Natural World Heritage Conservation.” Journal of Natural Resources 29, 11 (2014): 1978-1990.
http://dx.doi.org/10.11849/zrzyxb.2014.11.015
Lu, Xiaoxuan. “Transnational Land Use and Its Potential Environmental Consequence.” Acta Ecologica Sinica 34, 6 (2014): 1606-1613.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5846/stxb9
Studios
Sites and MeasuresDorothy Tang & Xiaoxuan Lu
BALS Studios2016-17

Interstitial Hong KongIvan Valin , Susanne Trumpf & Xiaoxuan Lu
MLA Studios2016-17

Border Landscape / le voisinageXiaoxuan Lu
MLA Thesis2016-17

Studio Laos: Strategic Landscape Planning for the Greater MekongAshley Kelly & Xiaoxuan Lu
BALS Studios2017-18

Interstitial Hong KongSusanne Trumpf , Vincci MAK & Xiaoxuan Lu
MLA Studios2017-18

Border Landscape / le voisinageXiaoxuan Lu
MLA Thesis2017-18

Staging Water Urbanisms: Landscape infrastructure for Changan Township, GuangdongDorothy Tang & Xiaoxuan Lu
Arch**-17

Studio Laos: Strategic Landscape Planning for the Greater MekongAshley Kelly & Xiaoxuan Lu
BALS Studios2018-19

Interstitial Hong KongJason Hilgefort , Susanne Trumpf & Xiaoxuan Lu
MLA Studios2018-19

Border Landscape / le voisinageXiaoxuan Lu
MLA Thesis2018-19

Studio Laos: Strategic Landscape Planning for the Greater MekongAshley Kelly & Xiaoxuan Lu
BALS Studios2019-20

Introduction to Landscape Design StudioMarta Catalan , Susanne Trumpf & Xiaoxuan Lu
MLA Studios2019-20

Border Landscape / le voisinageXiaoxuan Lu
MLA Thesis2019-20

Research
China’s Borderlands in TransitionXiaoxuan Lu
Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Initiative

Research Seminar 2018-19 | The Politics and Poetics of InfrastructureXiaoxuan Lu

Interstitial Hong KongXiaoxuan Lu
Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Initiative

Divergent Memories of Tumen Shan-shuiXiaoxuan Lu
Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Initiative

Reservoir Urbanism in ShenzhenXiaoxuan Lu
Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Initiative

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