Abstract：Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) is one of the first universities in China to develop urban design as an academic discipline. As urban development enters a crucial transitional period of urban renewal and high-quality development,systematically reviewing the historical roots and evolutionary paths of China’s urban design discipline provides important insights. Starting from the “MIT-China Urban Design Training Program” agreement signed by the former Ministry of Construction and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985, and the subsequent dispatch of a study group to MIT in 1986, this paper systematically reviews the nearly forty-year development of HIT’s urban design discipline—from transfer and local practice to the joint development of its northern and southern campuses. It outlines the academic genealogy of four generations of urban design scholars and summarizes four academic traditions: practicality, processorientation, locality, and institutional continuity. In light of contemporary propositions and the need for disciplinary and industrial transformation, the paper explores new development directions for HIT’s urban design discipline under the dual demands of industry transition and high-quality development. Ultimately, it aims to provide a university-level historical perspective and future directions for the development of urban design education in China.
