The project is located in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. One hundred years ago, the Zhongshan Bridge, designed by an American bridge company and built by the German Tailai Trading Company with Chinese craftsmen, became the first bridge in modern Chinese history built with foreign technology introduced to Lanzhou, Gansu, and the entire northwest region. One century later, there should stand a pedestrian bridge across the Yellow River independently designed, constructed, and built by the Chinese, s...

Few names in contemporary landscape architecture resonate as profoundly as Yu Kongjian. The most recent winner of the prestigious Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize—a distinction on a par with the Pritzker Prize in architecture and accompanied by a US$100,000 award—Yu has been recognised for his groundbreaking contributions to ecological urbanism. His ability to merge ecology with cutting-edge urbanism has led to transformative interventions in cities worldwide, ...

On July 1st, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) officially awarded Professor Yu Kongjian, Dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Peking University and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as the inaugural "NbS Global Champion (Champion for Nature-based Solutions)"—recognizing his outstanding contributions to ecological restoration and sustainable design.

Sponge City and Sponge Planet

OTTAWA, April 24, 2025 – The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) is proud to announce that Turenscape has been selected to receive the prestigious 2025 RAIC International Prize. Turenscape, based in Beijing and led by Dr. Kongjian Yu, has profoundly shaped the urban landscape of more than 250 cities globally through over 1,000 projects. Guided by their philosophical foundation of "Nature, Man, and Spirits as One," Turenscape seeks to promote harmony between land (Tu) and humanity (Ren...

Kongjian Yu’s 27-year-old Beijing-based practice Turenscape has been named this year’s winner of the RAIC International Prize by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC).

Reimagining the Flow of Nature: Sponge Cities and a Resilient Planet

Cities across the world are grappling with the escalating challenges of urban flooding and climate resilience. Traditional grey infrastructure such as concrete flood channels, drainage pipes, and embankments often proves insufficient in the face of extreme weather events.