China'spre-eminentlandscapearchitectisdesigningamoresustainablePlanet

Threetoplandscapearchitectsarebreathingnewlifeintourbanareas

ThismustbeKongjianYu’sbigyear-oroneofthem,anyway.OutofadozenASLA2010ProfessionalAwardsinthegeneralcategory,Yu’sfirm,Turenscape,basedinBeijing,haswonthree.

AlotoflipservicehasbeenpaidtoExpo’s“BetterCity,BetterLife,”theme,butHoutanParkisoneofitsrealgreenachievements.

Thebigfootrevolution:towardanewlandscapeaesthetic

Built on a brownfield of a former industrial site, Houtan Park is a regenerative living landscape on Shanghai's Huangpu riverfront.

It is remarkable that 200,000 people visited the park within its first few months of being open, and yet the delicate landscape has been visibly preserved by the careful design to separate walkways from the ground, with low maintenance requirements.”

The inspiring traditions in urban planning, design history and related fields may be useful for the development of landscape urbanism thinking to meet the needs and challenges of the ecological and sustainable urban form.

Thisnewcityofpeachblossomsisthesymbolofanewecologicalcivilization.Itistheartofsurvivalratherthanutopia.

Landscape architects: Turenscape and The Graduate School of Landscape Architecture, Peking University; Kongjian Yu (design principal), Shi Chun, Jia Jun, Ji Sheng, Hu Hanyu, Zhang Bo, Su Xinglan, Feng Xianjun, Wang Yunfeng, Lin Li and Zhang Xuenian