Nanjing University announced on March 17 that Penz, an emeritus professor at Cambridge, has joined the university in a full-time role. He previously served as director of the Martin Center for Architectural and Urban Studies, a fellow of Darwin College, and director of the Design, Visualization and Communication Digital Laboratory at Cambridge, the South China Morning Post reported.
Penz, 76, a pioneer in the interdisciplinary field of architecture and film, has worked closely with Nanjing University in recent years, delivering lectures and organizing architectural film exhibitions in China. He was selected for China’s National Leading Talent Programme in 2025, reflecting his long-standing collaboration with Chinese institutions prior to the move.
In a 2025 interview at Darwin College in the U.K., he highlighted his academic ties with China and expressed appreciation for his students. “Thanks to my wonderful PhD students, I’ve had a lot of collaboration with China. I’ve been to Nanjing University many times, and I’m going back in the spring to continue a research project with one of my former PhD students, who is now the dean of the faculty there.”
French professor Francois Pen. Photo courtesy of University of Cambridge
Born in France, Penz studied architecture at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland in the early 1970s, where he began integrating computer science into architectural research, a focus that later defined his doctoral work.
He earned a doctorate in architecture in 1983 and continued postdoctoral research at Cambridge before joining its architecture department in 1988. During his early years there, he introduced Apple computers into architectural research and authored “Computers in Architecture,” contributing to the discipline’s digital transformation.
Penz is also regarded as a leading figure in establishing film and architecture as a formal academic field. In 1995, he organized Cambridge’s first conference on the subject, which led to the creation of the Cambridge University Moving Image Studio in 1998 and the MPhil program in Architecture and the Moving Image.
His work also advanced the use of photography and moving images as tools in architectural design, shaping new approaches to visual representation in the field.
In 2009, the French government awarded him the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, one of France’s highest academic honors, in recognition of his contributions to education and scholarship.
Throughout his career, Penz has led interdisciplinary research integrating design, visual storytelling, and digital technologies, including projects funded by the U.K.’s Arts and Humanities Research Council and the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme.
He served as head of Cambridge’s architecture department from 2017 to 2019 and retired in 2023 at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since retiring, he has continued research focused on developing digital platforms for cross-cultural spatial studies, a direction he is expected to expand further at Nanjing University.
