Kongjian Yu Delivers ”Sponge Planet“ at the World Around Summit 2024

2024-05-20

LecturerKongjian Yu

Host
the World Around Summit
Time
11 May

Subject
Sponge Planet
Place
New York Guggenheim Museum

The World Around is a global non-profit organization based in New York with a simple yet grand mission: to make the best new ideas in design accessible to everyone. By focusing on interdisciplinary and cutting-edge fields, climate justice, and actionable ideas, it explores the current state, advancements, and future of contemporary design.

The 2024 The World Around Summit is scheduled to take place on May 11 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Through a series of lectures and dialogues, the summit will spotlight new global projects, with a particular focus on the intersection of design, ecology, and social justice. The interdisciplinary lineup will present innovative ideas in landscape architecture and urban planning, material innovation, housing, and cultural spaces, sharing designers' outstanding strategies for addressing today's challenges. The summit is divided into three parts. The first part, "Surveying the World," aims to delve into the details, examining the critical thinking and societal, scientific, and political forces that influence designers. The second part, "Fluid Fields," embraces the versatility and diversity of many contemporary artists, designers, and architects. The third part, "Planetary Landscapes," gathers the most important figures in today's landscape and urban design fields to explore cross-disciplinary, actionable strategies for addressing global warming. Yu Kongjian, Chair of the Climate Change Committee of the Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture and Professor at the College of Architecture and Landscape at Peking University, will deliver a lecture titled "Landscape Architecture in the Post-Industrial Civilization Era." Based on his ecological restoration and sponge city (sponge watershed) design practices in over 250 cities in China and more than ten countries worldwide, he will discuss the advantages and immense potential of the landscape architecture profession in addressing climate change.

Other notable speakers at the summit include renowned international designers and scholars such as architect Ma Yansong and Weitzman School of Design's Chair of Architecture Winka Dubbeldam.

Landscapes Keynote Speakers:

Yu Kongjian, Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Since returning to China in 1997, Yu Kongjian has led ecological restoration and sponge city (sponge watershed) design practices in over 250 cities in China and more than ten countries worldwide, achieving pioneering results and gaining global recognition. His projects draw on traditional Chinese wisdom and agricultural techniques to rebuild harmonious relationships between humans and the earth. His work has received numerous top awards and honors worldwide, including 14 ASLA Awards and 7 World Architecture Festival Awards. In 2020, he received the highest honor of IFLA - Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award, and in 2023, he won the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. The same year, he was selected from over 300 nominees to receive the highest award in landscape design, the Oberlander Prize.