Globo: Chinese Architect Turns Floods into Solutions with the Concept of "Sponge Cities"
Inspired by his own childhood, Kongjian Yu argues that water is not an enemy and proposes projects that return space to rivers to combat climate disasters.
China Uses Parks that Contain Floods to Assert Global Leadership in the Green Economy
In China, an architect has been gaining worldwide recognition by showing that the solution to floods may lie precisely in learning to live better with water. Kongjian Yu, regarded as one of the country’s greatest urban planners, transformed the trauma of nearly drowning in childhood into a concept that today inspires more than 250 cities: the so-called "sponge cities."He explains that the idea is not new. It is an adaptation of ancestral practices thousands of years old, used in rural villages, where vegetation and containment structures slow down the flow of water. The difference is that Yu applied this knowledge to large urban projects, proposing the replacement of so-called "gray infrastructure" — walls, concrete, and channels — with solutions that return space to rivers.
"Water is not the enemy," the urbanist summarizes. Instead of dams and reservoirs, he advocates for parks and green areas that absorb excess rainfall, like a sponge.
......
