Join us for a lecture and book launch with Professor Michele Bonino and Dr Francesco Carota about their new book: New Silk Road: The Architecture of the Belt and Road Initiative.
About this book
China’s Belt and Road Initiative, started in 2013, has transformed many places around the world but also China itself. In some cases, it provided crucial infrastructure, such as the General Hospital of Niger in Niamey or the National Library of El Salvador, while it also generated entire new urban areas, e.g. the Free Zone in Khorghos, Kazakhstan, with sometimes controversial effects to local communities and the environment. Based on research undertaken at the Politecnico di Torino, this publication looks at the "Belt and Road Initiative" in architectural and spatial terms. Organized in thematic categories, it entails a survey of 20 case studies and investigates the impact of these China-backed projects. All buildings are documented with maps, architectural drawings and photographs specifically created for this book.
Biographies
Michele Bonino is a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and the Head of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Politecnico di Torino. He was formerly the Vice-Rector for International Relations with Asian Countries. He is an Honorary Professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology. He has held visiting positions, including Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University (2013–2014) and Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2016). Among his recent publications are New Silk Road: Architecture and the Belt and Road Initiative (Birkhäuser, 2025, co-authored with F. Carota).
Francesco Carota is an Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture and Design, University of Kansas. He is an Associate Member at the Center for East Asian Studies, University of Kansas, and an Affiliate Researcher at the China Room Research Group, Politecnico di Torino. He is a co-author of various academic publications, including New Silk Road: Architecture and the Belt and Road Initiative (Birkhäuser, 2025, co-authored with M. Bonino). He was the scientific director of an exhibition on Chinese architecture and urbanization held at the Museum of Oriental Art in Turin, Italy, co-curator of the Italian Pavilion at the Shenzhen Design Week – 2018 Edition, and co-curator of the exhibition “Design Assemblies” at the 2023 Singapore Design Week. He is a licensed architect, co-founder, and Principal of the multidisciplinary design firm Calibro Zero.
Click here to read more about the book
Contact for the event: Dr Junjie Xi
Back to: School of Architecture