Home Entertainment Arts and design Kongjian Yu’s “Sponge Cities” concept is an innovative approach to urban design that prioritizes adaptation to climate change. The idea revolves around creating cities that can absorb and filter rainwater, much like a sponge, to mitigate the effects of urban flooding and water scarcity. By incorporating green infrastructure, such as parks, green roofs, and wetlands, into urban planning, Yu’s design aims to reduce the burden on traditional drainage systems and decrease the risk of flooding. This approach not only helps to alleviate the pressure on urban water management but also provides numerous ecosystem benefits, including improved air quality, enhanced biodiversity, and increased recreational spaces for residents. The “Sponge Cities” initiative has been implemented in various cities across China, with notable successes in reducing flood risk and improving environmental quality. Yu’s work has also gained international recognition, inspiring other cities to adopt similar strategies for climate-resilient urban design. Some key features of Kongjian Yu’s “Sponge Cities” design include: – Permeable pavements and surfaces to allow rainwater infiltration – Green roofs and walls to absorb and filter rainwater – Urban wetlands and ponds to store and treat excess rainwater – Green corridors and parks to provide habitat for wildlife and mitigate the urban heat island effect – Innovative drainage systems that prioritize natural filtration and absorption over traditional pipe-based infrastructure By embracing the “Sponge Cities” concept, urban planners and policymakers can create more resilient, sustainable, and livable cities that are better equipped to handle the challenges posed by climate change. What specific aspects of Kongjian Yu’s work or the “Sponge Cities” concept would you like to explore further?

Kongjian Yu’s “Sponge Cities” concept is an innovative approach to urban design that prioritizes adaptation to climate change. The idea revolves around creating cities that can absorb and filter rainwater, much like a sponge, to mitigate the effects of urban flooding and water scarcity. By incorporating green infrastructure, such as parks, green roofs, and wetlands, into urban planning, Yu’s design aims to reduce the burden on traditional drainage systems and decrease the risk of flooding. This approach not only helps to alleviate the pressure on urban water management but also provides numerous ecosystem benefits, including improved air quality, enhanced biodiversity, and increased recreational spaces for residents. The “Sponge Cities” initiative has been implemented in various cities across China, with notable successes in reducing flood risk and improving environmental quality. Yu’s work has also gained international recognition, inspiring other cities to adopt similar strategies for climate-resilient urban design. Some key features of Kongjian Yu’s “Sponge Cities” design include: – Permeable pavements and surfaces to allow rainwater infiltration – Green roofs and walls to absorb and filter rainwater – Urban wetlands and ponds to store and treat excess rainwater – Green corridors and parks to provide habitat for wildlife and mitigate the urban heat island effect – Innovative drainage systems that prioritize natural filtration and absorption over traditional pipe-based infrastructure By embracing the “Sponge Cities” concept, urban planners and policymakers can create more resilient, sustainable, and livable cities that are better equipped to handle the challenges posed by climate change. What specific aspects of Kongjian Yu’s work or the “Sponge Cities” concept would you like to explore further?

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Kongjian Yu’s “Sponge Cities” concept is an innovative approach to urban design that prioritizes adaptation to climate change. The idea revolves around creating cities that can absorb and filter rainwater, much like a sponge, to mitigate the effects of urban flooding and water scarcity. By incorporating green infrastructure, such as parks, green roofs, and wetlands, into urban planning, Yu’s design aims to reduce the burden on traditional drainage systems and decrease the risk of flooding. This approach not only helps to alleviate the pressure on urban water management but also provides numerous ecosystem benefits, including improved air quality, enhanced biodiversity, and increased recreational spaces for residents. The “Sponge Cities” initiative has been implemented in various cities across China, with notable successes in reducing flood risk and improving environmental quality. Yu’s work has also gained international recognition, inspiring other cities to adopt similar strategies for climate-resilient urban design. Some key features of Kongjian Yu’s “Sponge Cities” design include: – Permeable pavements and surfaces to allow rainwater infiltration – Green roofs and walls to absorb and filter rainwater – Urban wetlands and ponds to store and treat excess rainwater – Green corridors and parks to provide habitat for wildlife and mitigate the urban heat island effect – Innovative drainage systems that prioritize natural filtration and absorption over traditional pipe-based infrastructure By embracing the “Sponge Cities” concept, urban planners and policymakers can create more resilient, sustainable, and livable cities that are better equipped to handle the challenges posed by climate change. What specific aspects of Kongjian Yu’s work or the “Sponge Cities” concept would you like to explore further?


Kongjian Yu’s Lasting Impact on Urban Design: The Sponge City Concept

Landscape architect Kongjian Yu, who passed away on September 23rd, 2025, at the age of 62, left a profound legacy in the field of urban design through his pioneering ‘sponge city’ concept. This innovative design framework, which utilizes natural landscapes and nature-based solutions to manage urban water, has transformed the way cities approach flooding, water scarcity, and rapid urbanization. As the world grapples with the challenges of climate change, Yu’s vision of the sponge city has become an international model for climate resilience, shaping the future of urban development and inspiring a new generation of architects and planners.

The passing of Kongjian Yu on September 23rd, 2025, in a small plane crash in Brazil, marked the end of an era for the field of urban design. As the founder of Turenscape, a renowned landscape architecture practice, Yu spent three decades developing and refining the ‘sponge city’ concept, a design framework that has revolutionized the way cities manage urban water. The concept, which uses natural landscapes and nature-based solutions to catch, store, and purify urban water, has become a cornerstone of China’s urban development policy and an international model for climate resilience.

Introduction to Sponge Cities

The sponge city concept operates on three scales: macro, medium, and micro. At the macro scale, national and regional planning focuses on protecting ecological water processes and maintaining a balance between human activity and natural hydrology. Large-scale projects safeguard rivers, wetlands, and floodplains, forming ecological security patterns that guide urban expansion and infrastructure development. At the medium scale, sponge city principles guide urban development across several to tens of square kilometers, integrating green infrastructure with the existing urban fabric. At the micro scale, communities and households participate in stormwater management through green roofs, permeable courtyards, and other small-scale ecological infrastructure.

Key Highlights of Sponge Cities

Some of the key highlights of sponge cities include:
* Ecological stormwater management
* Green infrastructure integration
* Public green spaces creation
* Flood mitigation and habitat restoration
* Community participation in stormwater management
* Climate resilience and adaptation

The sponge city concept has been implemented in various projects across China, including the Qian’an Sanlihe River Ecological Corridor, Haikou’s Meishe River Greenway, and Nanchang Fish Tail Park. These projects demonstrate the effectiveness of the sponge city approach in mitigating floods, recharge groundwater, and supporting biodiversity, while simultaneously creating public green spaces.

From Theory to Prototypes

The seeds of the sponge city idea were planted in the mid-1990s, when Yu’s research at Harvard and later in China proposed integrating wetlands and floodplains into urban form. In 1998, he introduced the idea of security patterns in planning, framing rivers and wetlands as infrastructures of safety. These ideas materialized in early 2000s projects like the Beijing Olympic Green and stormwater systems in Shenyang, which tested wetlands as green sponges that could mitigate both droughts and floods.

Milestones: Projects that Proved the Concept

Some notable projects that proved the sponge city concept include:
* Houtan Park, constructed for the 2010 Shanghai Expo, which features a riverside wetland that filters polluted water and doubles as a public park
* Harbin Qunli Stormwater Park, which transforms 34 hectares of wetlands into a living sponge that can absorb urban runoff while creating biodiverse habitats
* Sanya Dong’an Wetlands, which introduces the modular Life Cells concept, networks of ponds, terraces, and wetlands acting as green infrastructure at different urban scales

These projects demonstrate the effectiveness of the sponge city approach in managing urban water, mitigating floods, and creating public green spaces. They have also inspired a new generation of architects and planners to adopt sustainable and resilient design principles in their work.

Conclusion

Kongjian Yu’s passing marks the end of an era for the field of urban design, but his legacy lives on through the sponge city concept. As the world grapples with the challenges of climate change, Yu’s vision of the sponge city has become an international model for climate resilience, shaping the future of urban development and inspiring a new generation of architects and planners. The sponge city concept has proven to be an effective approach in managing urban water, mitigating floods, and creating public green spaces, and its implementation will continue to have a lasting impact on the field of urban design.

Keywords: Kongjian Yu, sponge city, urban design, climate resilience, sustainable design, green infrastructure, ecological stormwater management, public green spaces, flood mitigation, habitat restoration, community participation, China’s urban development policy.

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