Kongjian Yu

Kongjian Yu (simplified Chinese: 俞孔坚; traditional Chinese: 俞孔堅; pinyin: Yú kǒngjiān, born in 1963 in Dongyu Village in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China), is a landscape architect and urbanist, writer and educator, commonly credited with the invention of Sponge City concept, and winner of the International Federation of Landscape Architects’ Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award in 2020.

An often-outspoken voice in the world of landscape architecture and urbanism, Yu has been heralded by Michael Sorkin as “a hero of effective advocacy within a system fraught with perils”.

[1] Several of Yu's core ideas for nature-based climate adaptations and ecological restoration, including the sponge city concept, have been adopted for nationwide implementation by the Chinese government and had a global reach.

[15][17][29][30][24] His works have been featured in publications such as Scientific American (December 2018),[15] Time,[31] and Landscape Architecture (February 2012), and two recently published books: Letters to Chinese Leaders: Kongjian Yu and the Future of the Chinese City[32] and Designed Ecologies: The landscape Architecture of Kongjian Yu.

He lectured worldwide at over 100 institutes including American Academy of Arts and Sciences,[34] National Academy of Sciences, World Economic Forum,[35] World Bank,[36] Harvard University,[37] Columbia University,[38] UC Berkeley, and many others, and had delivered over 60 keynote speeches at international conferences including 5 time keynote speeches at the World Congress of the International Federation of Landscape Architects and 3 time speeches at the ASLA annual conference and expo, and taught for 5 year at Harvard GSD as visiting professor.

[42] In 2020 Yu received the 2020 Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Awardfor his “achievements and contributions have had a unique and lasting impact on the welfare of society and the environment and on the promotion of the profession of landscape architecture.” [43][44] and received the 2021 John Cobb Common Good Award for his achievement on " Constructive Postmodernism Approach Towards Ecological Civilization".