Sponge Planet: Architecture for Survival

Kongjian Yu is principal designer at Turenscape, the Beijing-based landscape and urbanism firm he founded in 1998, and dean of the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at Peking University. He also founded and runs the Turenscape Academy, a non-accredited, hands-on program focused on rural regeneration and located in a small town in Anhui Province. With more than 500 employees, Turenscape has become a powerhouse firm that has designed and built nearly a thousand projects in China and around...

In this context, the work of Beijing-based architect Kongjian Yu, founder of the landscape architecture firm Turenscape, has gained international visibility and recognition, which included receiving the 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize (“Oberlander Prize”). His "sponge cities" concept, designed to address and prevent urban flooding in the face of accelerated climate change, was adopted as national policy in China in 2013. This approach prioritizes large-sc...

The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum Award winner talks to METROPOLIS about our changing planet, his “Sponge City” concept, and nature-based solutions to urban planning.

Bringing ecological balance or ‘peasantry wisdom’ back into the city is what will save the cities from natural disasters, asserts eminent landscape architect, Prof Yu.

This year marked the 60th anniversary of the Landscape Architecture and Planning program at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). It was celebrated with a ceremony and a symposium, Kongjian Yu was invited to give a speech.

This year marked the 60th anniversary of the Landscape Architecture and Planning program at the TUM. It was celebrated with a ceremony and a symposium. The event was highlighted by a speech given by Kongjian Yu, founder of Turenscape and Professor and Dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Peking University, who emphasized the excellent reputation of the TUM program and the relevance of the discipline.

LessonsmoderncitiescanlearnfromstunninglandscapesinChina.

heritagecorridorsandrecreation.Thisecologicalinfrastructurebecomesanintegratedmediumofvariousprocesses,bringingnature,manandspiritstogether.

Speaker kongjian yu, Ph.D., architecture and landscape design institute of Beijing university, dean, a visiting professor at Harvard University, Turenscape design company's founder and chief designer, will show how a system integration scheme actively and effectively cope with the deterioration of our environment through the different scales of experimental project.