Professor Marc Aurel Schnabel is a renowned expert in digital design, digital transformation and extended reality environments, with a distinguished career in architecture and design education spanning over 25 years in Germany, China, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Now, as the Dean of the Design School at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, he guides four departments – Architecture, Civil Engineering, Industrial Design, and Urban Planning and Design – and their research centres. Previously, he was the Founding Director of the FORUM8 Research Lab, which is the market leader in Japan for virtual city/building simulation, at Cambridge Innovation Center in Tokyo. As Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation and Chair Professor of Architectural Technology at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, he significantly contributed to advancing higher education in the creative fields. Trained as an Architect, Professor Schnabel has been the President of several professional organisations, including the Architectural Science Association (ANZAScA), the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), and the Autodesk Industry Advisory Board. Professor Schnabel has also researched virtual reality, digital heritage, and intelligent cities as a Principal Investigator of New Zealand’s National Science Challenge, “Better Homes, Towns, and Cities”. He has received several significant honours, including being made a CAADRIA Fellow, joining the Austrian Science Fund’s PEEK - Arts-Based Research Board as an expert in architecture and design, and becoming a partner of the European Union’s REACH (RE-designing Access to Cultural Heritage) platform. Throughout his career, Professor Schnabel has published extensively on digital architecture, urban design, and augmented/virtual realities and has curated several digital architectural exhibitions, including “Ars Electronica Aotearoa”. He has also established the Digital Architecture Research Alliance (DARA) and the online network 'Urban Digitalics', connecting professionals and researchers in innovative digital design. 

Virtual Augmented Environments / Metaverse

Digital Design Andragogy

Sentimental City Design

Urban Digital Twin

Real-time intelligent city simulations

CIM/BIM

Blockchain for the Construction Sector / Web3

Digital Supported Participatory Design

Digital Heritage

Smart Heritage

Computational Manga

Dean, Design School Design, XJTLU, since 2023

Founding Director, CIC FORUM8 Research Lab, Tokyo, Japan, 2022-2023

Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation, VUW, Wellington, New Zealand, 2015-2022

Visiting Professor School of Architecture, Sheffield University, UK, 2015-2018

Visiting Professor College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shenzhen University, China, 2009-2010

Associate Professor, School of Architecture, CUHK, Hong Kong, 2008-2014

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, USYD, Sydney, Australia 2006-2008

Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, HKU, Hong Kong, 1996-2005

Architectural Designer HO+K (Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum), Berlin, Germany, 1994-1995

Architectural Designer Langhof Architekten, Berlin, Germany, 1991-1994

ARC408 Dissertation

Fellow, CAADRIA, 2019

Fellow, Salzburg Seminar, 2005

Top Innovation Award (TIA), Ecological Design Award, China Industrial Design Association (CIDA), China, 2019

Partner, Ars Electronica Aotearoa, since 2021

Partner, REACH, European Union, since 2019

FORUM8 Academic Research Award, 2022

WORLD16 Academic Innovation Award, 2021

Global Design Industry Organization (GDIO), China, International Logo Design Competition, Recommendation, 2020

Best Supervisor Award, VUW, PGSA, 2016

People’s Prize Award Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo 2012, CUHK, 2012

Otto Wagner Städtebaupreis, International Award for Architecture & Urban Design, Vienna, Austria, Special Merit, 1995

Bauhaus future, European Competition for a new Bauhaus-School in Dessau, Germany, Special Merit, 1994