Kongjian Yu

Details

Nationality

Chinese

Notes

Founder of Turenscape (Beijing) and the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at Peking University; DDes Harvard GSD 1995. Pioneered the 'sponge city' concept, adopted as Chinese national policy from 2013/2014. Qunli Stormwater Park, Harbin (designed 2009, completed 2011); Shanghai Houtan Park (2009). 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize. Died in a plane crash in Brazil, 23 September 2025.

Connections

• proposed Sponge City
• associated with Contemporary Global South Practice
• authored Qunli Stormwater Park, Harbin

Sources

1. Qunli Stormwater Park, Harbin. 2011.
2. Kongjian Yu and Mary Padua (eds.). The Art of Survival: Recovering Landscape Architecture. Images Publishing, 2006.
3. Kongjian Yu. Designed Ecologies: The Landscape Architecture of Kongjian Yu. Birkhäuser, 2012.