Chinese Landscape Architect and Educator Kongjian Yu Dies in Plane Crash in Brazil
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Kongjian Yu, founder of Beijing-based landscape architecture and urban design practice Turenscape, died in a plane crash late in the evening of September 23 in a remote area of the vast Pantanal wetlands within Mato Grosso do Sul, a federal state in west-central Brazil. A news report from Reuters confirmed his passing. The plane’s pilot and two local filmmakers on-board with Yu, who was in Brazil for the Sao Paulo International Architecture Biennial, also died in the crash. The filmmakers were working on a documentary about Yu’s work.
At 62, Yu was arguably China’s most famous contemporary landscape architect. He was best known internationally for his ‘sponge city’ concept, a porous approach to urban design that employs large-scale green infrastructure with recreational elements to mitigate flooding accelerated by climate change. Yu, a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design who went on to establish the department of landscape architecture at Peking University, was the 2023 recipient of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)’s biennial Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.
In reaction to his passing, TCLF president and CEO Charles Birnbaum said in a statement that Yu “demonstrated that one person can make a difference.”
“Thanks to his unceasing efforts, the ‘sponge cities’ concept was adopted as national policy in China,” said Birnbaum. “Leading by example he unequivocally demonstrated how a landscape architect can change the way a major country sees and acts, and inspired a global movement.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also reacted to the tragic accident. “It was with sadness and dismay that I received the news of the plane crash,” he said in a statement. “In times of climate change, Kongjian Yu became a global reference with the sponge cities, which combine quality of life and environmental protection.”
2023 Oberlander Prize Laureate Kongjian Yu sketching the concept for Chinatown Park, Boston, 2003. Photo © Turenscape, courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Others have commented with shock to Yu’s death. On Instagram, British architect and critic Kenneth Frampton wrote: “We will deeply miss his talent and generosity of spirit. He was such an important and committed figure, dedicated to preserving and cultivating the ecological health of our planet through the art of landscape design at a very large scale.”
Born in a remote village in the Zhejian Province, Yu established Turenscape in 1998. The studio has since grown to become one of China’s largest landscape architecture firms, and has won numerous, project-based awards over the years. While the lion’s share of its work is in China, Turenscape has designed landscapes in other Asian countries and in France, Russia, and the United States, where the firm has realized two modestly sized but striking public green spaces: Chinatown Park in Boston (2007) and Seattle’s Hing Hay Park (2018). Earlier this month, the firm received a coveted Award of Excellence from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) as part of its 2025 Professional Awards program for Fish Tail Park in Nanchang City, China. It is unknown if Yu had planned to travel to New Orleans, where the ASLA is holding its annual conference in October, to accept the honor in person.
In August 2024, RECORD contributing editor Cliff Pearson spoke with Yu about topics including the role landscape architecture can play at various scales, his engagement with the Chinese government, and the need to integrate indoor and outdoor environments.
When asked about “what’s next?” by Pearson, Yu specifically mentioned his focus on Brazil and the devastating impacts of climate change there.
“The landscape architecture profession needs fundamental change, so it can address the challenge of climate change,” he said. “In just the last few months, there has been unprecedented flooding in Brazil, Bolivia, and China. Landscape must be infrastructure for a new, more sustainable lifestyle.”
Additional reactions to Yu’s death will be added to this breaking story.
