Hongjin (Tony) Yu and Dong Wang Spoke at the 2026 UIA World Congress of Architects in Barcelona

At the 29th UIA World Congress of Architects, held in Barcelona from June 28 to July 2, 2026, Turenscape participated as the invited Chinese landscape architecture institution for one of the Congress's parallel forums, contributing to global discussions on the future of human settlements. Hongjin (Tony) Yu, Chairman of Turenscape, delivered an online keynote presentation during the core forum Becoming More than Human, while Dong Wang, Director General of Turenscape's Eco-city Design Center, attended the Congress in person to exchange ideas with international peers and present the firm's award-winning projects.

Hongjin (Tony) Yu: Advancing a Climate-Resilient Future through AI and Ecological Intelligence

Turenscape played an active role in the core forum Becoming More than Human. Hongjin (Tony) Yu delivered an online keynote address, presenting the latest developments in China's Sponge City practice together with Turenscape's pioneering exploration of integrating artificial intelligence into ecological design.

His presentation focused on the convergence of AI and ecological planning and design, outlining Turenscape's vision for a new era in which technology and nature work together to create resilient cities. Yu emphasized that restoring the natural water cycle is not merely a technical challenge, but a systemic undertaking involving spatial planning, ecological restoration, and cultural transformation.

Organized around three themes—restoring the water cycle, community and social function, and governance—his presentation featured projects including Shanghai Houtan Park, Yichang Canal Park, and the Meishe River Ecological Restoration in Haikou. These case studies demonstrated the evolution of the Sponge City approach, from industrial brownfield regeneration and community resilience to watershed-scale ecological governance.

Drawing upon his interdisciplinary background in robotics, computer vision, and machine learning, Yu also introduced Turenscape's ongoing development of AI-powered design platforms for rapid design iteration, ecological simulation, and public participation. The goal is to make the design capacity of the Sponge City—and ultimately the vision of a "Sponge Planet"—accessible to everyone, enabling citizens, designers, students, and governments alike to collaboratively create nature-based, water-adaptive urban environments. He reaffirmed Turenscape's commitment to advancing nature-based solutions to address climate change and to building resilient, regenerative cities for the future.

Dong Wang: Benjakitti Forest Park Demonstrates the Power of "Letting Nature Work"

Representing Turenscape in Barcelona, Dong Wang presented the firm's internationally acclaimed Benjakitti Forest Park in Bangkok, Thailand, illustrating how ecological innovation can thrive under significant constraints.

The project transformed an 80-year-old tobacco factory into a 42.3-hectare urban forest and has received numerous international honors, including the 2024 UIA 2030 Award and the 2023 World Architecture Festival (WAF) Landscape of the Year Award.

Facing limited budgets, tight construction schedules, and increasingly severe cycles of drought and flooding, Turenscape developed a modular porous sponge wetland system. Through balanced cut-and-fill strategies, the design created hundreds of tree islands, improved water quality from Class V to Class III standards, and provided 187,500 cubic meters of stormwater storage capacity.

The design also preserved as many mature trees and existing paved surfaces as possible, reused demolished concrete as construction material, and integrated elevated walkways with immersive boardwalks. Together, these interventions created a vibrant "wild nature" that accommodates intensive public use while providing high-quality habitat for wildlife. With its low-cost, low-maintenance, and high-performance ecological strategies, Benjakitti Forest Park offers a scalable model for sustainable park development in high-density cities around the world.

Through Hongjin (Tony) Yu's forward-looking keynote presentation and Dong Wang's project-based sharing, Turenscape presented a comprehensive narrative that bridges visionary thinking with built practice. The firm's participation highlighted nearly three decades of research and implementation in Sponge City theory while demonstrating how artificial intelligence and ecological intelligence can jointly shape the future of resilient urban development.

Looking ahead, Turenscape will continue advancing the vision of a "Sponge Planet" by integrating cutting-edge digital technologies with nature-based solutions, contributing both academic leadership and practical innovation to the global response to climate change and laying a strong foundation for the 2029 UIA World Congress of Architects in Beijing.