Introducing Kongjian Yu, the 2023 Oberlander Prize Laureate

Chinese landscape architect Kongjian Yu provides a compelling look at how his “sponge cities” concept for addressing climate change accelerated urban flooding emerged from his roots in a bucolic village of 500 people during the Cultural Revolution. He went from being a so-called “rural bumpkin” to graduating from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, founding the 400-person Beijing-based firm Turenscape, and seeing the “sponge cities” concept adopted as national policy in China in 2013 and sparking worldwide fascination and interest. Learn more: tclf.org/prize.
Yu’s “sponge cities” concept addresses climate change accelerated urban flooding with large-scale nature-based infrastructure - including constructed wetlands, greenways, parks, canopy tree and woodland protection, rain gardens, green roofs, permeable pavements, bioswales, other measures - that acts as sponges soaking up and storing rainfall instead of relying exclusively on traditional concrete reinforced riverbanks, dams, pipes, drains, and other conventional engineering solutions. Since being adopted as national policy in 2013, more than 70 cities in China have implemented the “sponge cities” concept with the goal that by 2030 80% of the cities would be able to absorb 70% of their rainfall. His ideas are inspiring planners and decision makers in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, England, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, United States, and elsewhere.

[@VijayaSun1]

I am so moved by this video! Thank you, Mr. Kongjian Yu, for being so thoughtful, creative, caring, and innovative! We need more people like you to save our planet. "Ecological Utopia" - so inspiring and beautiful! ❤