b'STUDENT EXPERIENCEHANGZHOUThe Hangzhou Studio was an exceptional experience for the entire class. The studio revealed the connection of Grand Canal culture to the modern transformation and developing design of Hangzhou, which was impressive.The city walks showed students the need to balance ancient and modern designs and comfortable human-scaled streetscapes and we experienced the crowded street system full of pedestrian and vehicles. We went to West Lake, and took a boat to experience the slow pace and beauty of the water landscape. We went to the Liangzhu Culture Museum to learn of one of the worlds first urban civilisations and were invited to inspect huge new urban development projects.In the studio, MUDD students worked well with fellow students from Zhejiang University. Before the trip, we were worried that there would be fewer UNSW students in Hangzhou than were going to be in Beijing Thanks to the strong support from Zhejiang University and willing cooperation from the students and staff, we ended up having a great experience during the whole studio.We began the studio by undertaking a field trip to the site and then we had brain storming sessions. Each day at the Zhejiang University campus we worked hard all morning, then enjoyed lunch in the canteen chatting about daily life and fun stories, and then went back to the studio to keep working on our projects. We worked long and hard but were proud when we were finally standing in front of the jury and presenting our design to them. The International Studio is short and tough, but both of the ZJU students and UNSW students learned a lot and gained a deeper understanding of each other and from the different approaches at each university.As a farewell celebration we went to a historic restaurant overlooking the Gonshan Bridge, expressing our gratitude to each other and using a Chinese way to express our appreciationdrinking and feasting! We all wished the time of parting could be delayed. The Hangzhou International Studio was a truly memorable experience and very worthwhile for all the students. We were very fortunate to be able to observe the differences between China and Australia, to experience the local customs, and we will be able to utilise the lessons learned from this experience in our future design careers.- Zhou Yanyi (Eleanor)149P6-20200302-OTHERS.indd 6 2020/3/6 0:02:36'