Dr Youcao Ren
School of Architecture and Landscape
Lecturer in Architecture
Full contact details
School of Architecture and Landscape
Arts Tower
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
- Profile
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Trained as an urban designer and ethnographer, I obtained a MA in Urban Design and a PhD in Landscape Architecture from the University of Sheffield. My research revolves around sustainable urban transformation in the global South and East in response to UN Sustainable Development Goals. My recent ethnographic work explores everyday sanitation and water practices through an intersectionality lens, with a particular focus to inquiry and (re)interpret infrastructural informality. Through this, I investigate alternative, situated scenarios of sustainable infrastructure transformation. My case studies primarily focus on the urban China but expands to cities of India and Brazil as well.
Prior to joining Sheffield School of Architecture, I held posts at Manchester School of Architecture and the University of Manchester. I am part of the Susinfra network which is the umbrella for a portfolio of research on urban infrastructural transformations in the global south.
- Research interests
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Sustainable urban transformation in the global south and east, everyday practice of sanitation and water infrastructure, urban informality, urban ethnography
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Between Fengshui and Neighbors: Case Studies of Participant-Led House-Making in Rural East China. Architecture and Culture.
- More than ‘urban character’: an introduction to the concept of fengmao and fengmao-led planning and design in China. URBAN DESIGN International, 26(3), 211-219.
- Reviving traditional burial rituals with feng shui: changing landscapes in China. Mortality, 26(1), 83-99.
- Towards a Holistic Narration of Place: Conserving Natural and Built Heritage at the Humble Administrator’s Garden, China. Architecture, 3(3), 446-460.
Chapters
- One Size Does Not Fit All: Sanitation Solutions in Shanghai’s Older and Under-Serviced Inner-City Neighbourhoods, Urban Infrastructuring (pp. 185-204). Springer Nature Singapore
- Architecture, Sanitation and COVID-19: Design Interventions in Resource-Limited Settings (Accra, Ghana), Urban Infrastructuring (pp. 277-295). Springer Nature Singapore
- Infrastructuring with Care in Cities of the Global South, Sustainable Development Goals Series (pp. 309-319). Springer Nature Singapore
Website content
- A global ‘toilet revolution’ is underway – but it’s polluting water and ignoring the urban poor.
- Between Fengshui and Neighbors: Case Studies of Participant-Led House-Making in Rural East China. Architecture and Culture.
- Teaching activities
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- ARC6979 Urban Design Tools and Methods
- ARC6978/6981 Urban Design Project
- ARC6982 Urban Design Thesis