Designed Ecologies

China’s foremost landscape designer

Kongjian Yu and his office Turenscape are beyond doubt the foremost landscape architecture practice in China today. The vast scale of China and her apparently boundless growth have enabled Yu to test many ideas that are still largely theories in the Western world. His work – increasingly valued and appreciated in Europe and North America - has attained an extremely high and elegant level in both conception and execution. Kongjian Yu is known for his ecological stance, often against the resistance of local authorities. His guiding design principles are the appreciation of the ordinary and a deep embracing of nature, even in its potentially destructive aspects, such as floods. Among his most acclaimed projects are Houtan Park for Shanghai Expo, the Red Ribbon Park in Qinhuangdao, and Shipyard Park in Zhongshan. This book explores Yu’s work in 11 essays by noted authors and documents 22 major projects extensively.

• Monograph on the leading Chinese practice for landscape architecture
• Internationally acclaimed authors from landscape, design and urbanism
• Carefully documented case studies sshow exciting and fresh work

John Beardsley, author and curator; Director of Garden and Landscape Studies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.; adjunct professor of landscape architecture; Harvard University Graduate School of Design; author, Earthworks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape, and other books.

Kristina Hill, lecturer and consultant on adapting infrastructure to climate change; associate professor of landscape architecture, University of Virginia; editor, Ecology and Design.

Dihua Li, associate professor of landscape architecture, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University, specialist in urban ecology and planning, coeditor of five-book series on landscape architecture education in China, published, starting in 2008, by Higher Education Press, Beijing.

Peter G. Rowe, Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Harvard Graduate School of Design; University Distinguished Service Professor; Harvard University; author, "East Asia Modern: Shaping the Contemporary City" (Reaktion Books, 2005), "Emergent Architectural Territories in East Asian Cities" (Birkhäuser, 2011), and many other books.

William S. Saunders, Ph.D.; Editor, Harvard Design Magazine, Harvard University Graduate School of Design (1997-2012); author, Modern Architecture: Photographs by Ezra Stoller and James Wright; editor of several books, including Nature, Landscape, and Building for Sustainability; The New Architectural Pragmatism; Judging Architectural Value, and Commodification and Spectacle in Architecture; Daniel Urban Kiley; and Richard Haag; author, articles on architecture, education, and theory.

Kelly Shannon, researcher at the intersection of urban analysis and design, especially in Asia; Professor of Landscape Architecture, Oslo School of Architecture and Design; coeditor, two book series, "Explorations in/of Urbanism" and "Urban Fascicles OSA"; coauthor, "The Landscape of Contemporary Infrastructure".

Frederick R. Steiner, dean and Henry M. Rockwell Chair, School of Architecture, University of Texas, Austin; author, The Living Landscape: An Ecological Approach to Landscape Planning and other books.

Antje Stokman, landscape architect, head of osp urbanelandschaften, Hamburg; professor and director of the Institute of Landscape Planning and Ecology, Stuttgart University; author, essays on water in urban landscapes, and "River.Space.Design" (Birkhäuser, 2012).

Charles Waldheim, John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design; editor of The Landscape Urbanism Reader.

Peter Walker, FASLA, head, Peter Walker and Partners, Landscape Architecture, Berkeley, California; former chairman, department of landscape architecture, Harvard University and University of California, Berkeley; coauthor, "Invisible Gardens: The Search for Modernism in the American Landscape" and other books.

Kongjian Yu, president of Turenscape landscape architecture, urban design, and architecture, Beijing, China; professor and dean, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University; author, "The Art of Survival" and several other books.