The ‘Restoration Road’ Culture and Practice of Heritage Conservation and Enhancement

The history of the relations between the Politecnico of Torino and China has a significant starting point in 2005 with the Politong Program, which involved PoliTO, Tongji University (Shanghai), and Politecnico of Milano. Stemming from intergovernmental dialogue between Italy and China, the project was funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MUR) until 2013 and subsequently primarily by China. Over the years, more than 1000 students have benefited from the program in Information and Communication Engineering, Mechanical and Production Engineering, and Systemic Design. In 2017 finally, Politecnico of Torino established the China Center1 with the aim of offering a strategic vision and dedicated management of activities in which China is the leading partner. The China Center introduced several structural innovative aspects into PoliTO’s approach to China and intends to promote and facilitate relations and communications with Chinese institutions; provide support for planning and management of projects and research activities with Chinese partners; strengthen the competitiveness of the Politecnico in China in the field of training, research, and consultancy in the academic, institutional and industrial sectors; increase the familiarity of scholars and professionals with the Chinese university system and the Chinese market. It should be noted that the China Center is not conceived as a Research or an Innovation center but rather as a facilitator/promoter of the research and training activities conducted by the PoliTO departments in cooperation with Chinese partners. The China Center supports specific research groups such as the China Room2 , established in 2016, dedicated to urban and architecture studies in China, or the automotive group, recently enriched with a specific headquarters dedicated to Chinese collaborations and supporting various individual researchers or small groups as well. Since its start in 2018, the China Center has contributed to achieving different results alongside implementing traditional education programs in partnership with top partner HEIs, such as bilateral Student Exchange agreements and Double Degree agreements at all levels. Among the latter, we can mention the Joint PhD in Architecture with Tsinghua University (2018), the Agreement on scholarships for full-degree and visiting PhD students (2019, China Scholarship Council, CSC), the DD Master of Science in Urban Design with South China University of Technology (SCUT, from 2020).