Kongjian Yu, a Beijing-based landscape architect, author, and academic famed for pioneering a particularly porous approach to urban design that employs large-scale green infrastructure with recreational elements to mitigate flooding accelerated by climate change, is the winner of the second Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.

Modern challenges such as floods, rising global temperatures and water shortages can be mitigated with a holistic but revolutionary approach – turning the planet into a sponge, a strategy that is already being deployed in more than 250 cities.

October 17, 2023 (Washington, D.C.) – The Cultural Landscape Foundation (“TCLF”) today announced that Beijing-based landscape architect Kongjian Yu is the recipient of the 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize (“Oberlander 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 global champion of the “sponge cities” concept fo...

Designer Kongjian Yu’s sponge city concept is saving cities from too much rain. He just won the field’s biggest prize for his work.

01 Problem: city syndrome of Heze -- flood and waterlog, habitat demolishment, loss of local identity, lack of recreation space Background: forthcoming urbanization process Considerable expansion of build-up area Great proportion of inner city renewal 2020 (according to the new general plan of Heze, 2005-2020) Changing pattern and quantity constitution of the city's open space The main problems of the open space of Heze 1. Hydrologic process • Located in the...

Kongjian Yu was only 10 years old when he witnessed the power of nature firsthand. Heavy rain caused the creek near his village in China’s Zhejiang province to swell and spill over to the rice terraces. When he ran to the river’s edge in excitement, he slipped into the surging floodwaters. Fortunately, he was able to save himself by grabbing onto the willow and reed vegetation that grew all along the banks.

Almost all of China's medium and large cities are now susceptible to floods. And [Kongjian] Yu says 60% of them experience flooding every year. Extreme weather from climate change is exacerbating the problem.