The principal design element of this “sponge city” park by Chinese landscape architect Kongjian Yu and his Beijing-based firm Turenscape is an eye-catching yet minimal intervention – a surgically-inserted, sinuous 1,640-feet-long (500-meter-long) red benchlike structure threaded along the length of a narrow rectangular site on the Tanghe River. It integrates a boardwalk, seating, and lighting; lit from inside, it glows red at night, and it has been a major hit since it opened in 2007. Importantly, the park retained the site’s lush and diverse native vegetation, eliminated dumped garbage, and created new scenic and recreational opportunities. The stunning efficiency and artistic brilliance of the park’s design helped Yu win the 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Prize. Learn more: https://tclf.org/prize.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a Washington, D.C.- based education and advocacy non-profit established in 1998, is home to the Oberlander 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.
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