Terragrams : Interview with Kongjian Yu

Kongjian Yu was born into a farming family and grew up farming aside his father. He graduated from the Beijing Forestry University in 1987 with a degree in Landscape Architecture where he successfully presenting his thesis entitled "The Quantitative Models for Landscape Assessment”. After five years of teaching, he left for the United States to study at Harvard and receive his Doctor of Design from the Graduate School of Design. Following this Yu worked in the Laguna Beach office of SWA until in 1997 he returned back to China where he established the School of Landscape Architecture at the Peking University. One year later he launched Turenscape a private multi-disciplinary design office covering the work of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design which today boasts a staff of more than 600 professionals. In 2003, expanding the symbiosis between Turenscape and Peking University, he founded the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture. In dispatch 29, Yu discusses his Big Foot Revolution, the birth of Turenscape and the Peking University programs of landscape architecture as well as his influence on the Chinese national debate concerning urban development. October 3, 2010.