The city should use this urban planner's idea ofabsorbing,cleaning and using rainwaterefrcientlyand sustainably His concept is not just about managing water, but harmonizing urban development with nature's cycles.

L’architecte paysagiste chinois Kongjian Yu, 61 ans, est né au paradis. C’est lui qui le dit, lorsqu’il évoque avec nostalgie son village natal de Dongyu, dans la province du Zhejiang, sur la côte est du pays. C’est là, entre les rizières et les méandres verdoyants de la rivière Wujiang, que ce fils de paysan, comme il aime à le rappeler, a élaboré, à partir de 2003, après que Pékin eut à subir une série d’inondations catastrophiques, son concept de "ville éponge".

One of the most memorable crits I attended during the World Architecture Festival a couple weeks ago was Turenscape's presentation of Puyangjiang River Corridor, which involved the demolition of the channelized river's concrete embankments and subsequent "softening and remediating" of the 10-mile-long river corridor.

Sponge City and Sponge Planet

Cities capable of absorbing water and releasing it when needed: Kongjian Yu has changed the approach to urban planning in the People’s Republic of China.

A Associação Nacional de Coberturas Verdes (ANCV) realiza nos dias 23 e 24 de maio, na Super Bock Arena (Porto), o Nature Based Solutions Summit Urban Edition, “evento de referência” na área da sustentabilidade urbana.

The event dedicated to nature-based solutions arrives in Porto, Portugal, in May 2024. Organized by ANCV together with Porto City Council , through Águas e Energia do Porto , the Nature Based Solutions Summit will take place on the 23rd and May 24th, at the Super Bock Arena, in Porto.

Oberlander Prize Forum with Kongjian Yu & Jury Chair Elizabeth Mossop

Recently, the Beijing-based landscape architect Kongjian Yu became the recipient of the 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize. The biennial Oberlander Prize includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities focused on the laureate’s work and landscape architecture more broadly. Yu is the developer of the concept of sponge cities concept for addressing climate change and addressing accelerated urban flooding.