Taro Cai is a PhD candidate in Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the Daniels Faculty. His research centers on the production and dissemination of knowledge, cultural landscapes, landscape infrastructure, and critical heritage studies. His dissertation explores the development of urban parks, gardens, and the discipline of landscape architecture in China since 1949. Specifically, it examines the transnational exchange of landscape design knowledge and practices during the reform and post-reform eras, investigating the role of landscape in the People's Republic of China's nation-building process.

Before joining the University of Toronto, Cai earned his Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture from Purdue University and his Master's degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University. His student works received the Award of Excellence and the Award of Honor from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Cai also brings with him five years of experience as a designer, researcher, and project manager at OLIN in Philadelphia. Currently, Cai is a Massey College Junior Fellow and a Junior Fellow of the Theory and History Committee at the Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture.

PhD Committee

• Georges Farhat
• Yue Meng (East Asian Studies)
• Juan Du (Architecture, Landscape, and Design)
• Tong Lam (Historical Studies)

• IFLA's Contribution to the Development of Landscape Architecture in China, International Federation of Landscape Architecture 2023 World Congress
• Making and Managing Overseas Classical Chinese Gardens, Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation 2023 Annual Conference
• “Practices, Techniques and Materials: The Temporalities in Classical Chinese Gardens,” forthcoming peer-reviewed article in Zhong Guo Yuan Lin Journal, 2024.
• “Beyond Walls: Contextualizing Premodern Classical Chinese Gardens in Regional Landscape Making,” forthcoming presentation at the Landscape Archaeology Conference at the Universidad de Alcalá, Spain, 2024
• “Modernizing A Cultural Landmark: A Case Study of West Lake in Hangzhou, China,” presentation at the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation Conference, 2024
• “Cultivating A Garden: Landscape-Making as Maintenance,” presentation at the “Perpetual Upkeep” Graduate Art History Symposium at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2024

• SAH, SAH-Landscape Chapter
• CCA Research Network
• Architectural History Work Group
• Landscape Research Group
• Association for Asian Studies

• Email: taro.cai@mail.utoronto.ca
• Instagram: instagram.com/tarocai