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Yu Kongjian
Yu Kongjian, a farmer’s son and Doctor of Design from Harvard, was founding dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape at Peking University and a globally recognized leader in ecological urbanism. As founder of Turenscape, he pioneered nature-based, water-driven solutions for climate resilience—most notably the Sponge City and Sponge Planet concepts—which have shaped China’s ecological strategies and gained global influence.
Kongjian’s visionary work spans more than 1,000 projects across 250 cities, blending ecological wisdom with contemporary landscape design. His contributions earned him the world’s highest honors in the field, including the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Prize, the Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, and over 100 international design awards. He held honorary doctorates from the Sapienza University of Rome and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and was an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“The World Around brings design into the heart of public discourse. In a time of planetary crisis, it is not enough to design for beauty or profit; we must design for survival — for ecological resilience, social equity, and cultural continuity. The World Around empowers practitioners, thinkers, and communities to ask the hard questions and to share radical, place-based solutions. That is why I support this work wholeheartedly. It connects me to a global community of designers who are not afraid to challenge the status quo.”
