Zhou Zhenru

I am an architectural historian, educator, and designer dedicated to bridging the gaps between technologies and the humanities, China and the broader world, and the past and the future. My research and teaching focuses on Buddhist art and architecture in premodern China, cave temples along the Silk Roads, architectural imaging, and digital revitalization of cultural heritage. I hold a Ph.D. degree in art history from the University of Chicago, and a bachelor degree and two master degrees in architecture from Tsinghua University and Princeton University. I worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Architecture at Tsinghua University before joining SIGS.

2016–2023   University of Chicago, Art History, PhD

2014–2016   Princeton University, Architecture, Master

2011–2014   Tsinghua University, Architecture, Master

2007–2011 Tsinghua University, Architecture, Bachelor

2026– Tsinghua University, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Institute of Future Human Habitats, Assistant Professor

2023–2025 Tsinghua University, School of Architecture, Shuimu Scholar Post-Doctoral Fellow

A deep interest in the visual means for world-making and place-making underlies my decade-long studies of the Mogao caves, a major Buddhist cave complex in northwest China constructed between the fifth and fourteenth centuries. My first book project, tentatively titled The Three-Story Grotto: The Making of a Monument in Dunhuang, pinpoints key moments of architectural creativity throughout the thousand-year development of the Mogao caves. It examines the development of composite architecture—which consists of decorated rock-cut caves, timber-framed porches, and earthen stupas—as a clever local response to religious imagination, political instability, and cultural diversity.

My current research projects explore the efficacy of architecture and its visual representation across local, national, and global scales. My second book project, tentatively titled Dunhuang Pagodas: A Visual History of Chinese Architecture in Intercultural Contexts, focuses on the rich visual and material culture of pagoda in late-medieval Dunhuang and beyond. The project inquiries into the historical progress through which the idea of pagoda has been transmitted, localized, and utilized. This ongoing project is sponsored by the National Social Science Fund of China.

I seek to study architectural imagery and visual culture from a global perspective. Broadly defined, architectural imagery includes built environments represented through painting and sculpture, as well as spatial concepts expressed through miniature architecture and stage sets. In premodern societies, architectural imagery was one of the key visual means for conceptualizing ideal living environments, transmitting architectural knowledge over long distances, and shaping cultural identities. With new talents joining my research team, future studies aim to translate the complexity of historical humanities into frameworks that inform and inspire the design of future habitats.

[1]  Zhou, Zhenru. “Dunhuang Architectural Studies, 1926–2024.” Heritage 8 (2025): 101. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8030101 

[2]  Zhou, Zhenru, and Luke Li. “Vision and Site: Revisiting a Pure Land Cave of Dunhuang.” Religions 15, no. 3 (2024): 329. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030329 

[3]  Zhou, Zhenru. “Escaping from Confinement: Hell Imagery in the Shōjuraigōji Rokudōe Scrolls.” Arts 13, no. 3 (2024): 94. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13030094

[4]  Zhou, Zhenru. “Transcending History: (Re)Building Longchang Monastery of Mount Baohua in the Seventeenth Century.” Religions 13, no. 4 (2022): 285. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13040285 

[5]  Zhou, Zhenru. “From Earth to Heaven: An Architectural Spectacle of the Dunhuang Mogao Caves.” Athanor 39 (November 2022): 171–192. https://doi.org/10.33009/FSU_athanor131171 

[6]  Zhou, Zhenru, and Sun Yihua. “Reconstructing a Pagoda-Temple of 5th-Century Dunhuang.” The Newsletter 97, Spring 2024: 14–15.

[7]  Zhou, Zhenru. “New Wine from an Old Bottle: Remaining ‘The Dunhuang Library Cave’ through the Long Twentieth Century.” In Continuity and Change in Asia, edited by Filip Kraus, et al., Palacký University Olomouc, 2023: 545–592.

[8]  周真如, 徐缓之. 境生象外——敦煌当代美术馆开馆展“境象敦煌”浅析[J]. 艺术工作, 2025(1): 36–44.

[9]  周真如, 武玉秀. 画意与玄相：敦煌纸画多子塔图[J]. 丝绸之路研究集刊, 第 11 期: 209–226. 

[10]  周真如. 图像建筑：摩西·迈蒙尼德的犹太第二圣殿[J]. 建筑史学刊，2024(4): 45–56. 

[11]  周真如, 孙毅华.  宝刹飞来 蜂台合势：敦煌莫高窟晚唐第14窟建筑意匠探讨[J]. 建筑史学刊，2024(3): 123–135.

[12]  周真如. 筑地构天：敦煌莫高窟窟前建筑景观[J]. 湖北美术学院学报, 2024(1): 87–95.

[13]  周真如, 张维. 文化视野下医药类公共空间特征提炼与转译——以北京中医药大学岐黄殿及组团为例[J]. 住区，2021(5): 52–61. 

[14]  孙毅华，周真如. 壁画中的转轮藏经楼钟楼形象及附带遗址讨论[J]. 敦煌研究, 2025(4): 17–25. 

[15]  孙毅华，周真如. 莫高窟第254、257窟中心柱窟的复原研究与名称考——塔寺[J]. 中国建筑史论汇刊, 2019, 18: 161–176. 

[16]  孙毅华，周真如. 敦煌壁画中的大、小昭寺[J]. 西藏人文地理，2022(2): 118–123.

Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) Predoctoral Dissertation Fellowship: Ittleson Fellowship, 2021–2023

Best Dissertation in 2023, Department of Art History, University of Chicago

First Prize, Regional Holcim Sustainable Architecture Awards, Asia Pacific Next Generation，2014