DESIGN WITH NATURE TO CREATE A SPONGE CITY: “On a regional, larger scale, we need a massive plan, to see where it’s possible to give water more space. It certainly has holistic benefits,” stated Kongjian Yu, landscape architect
Kongjian Yu pioneered China’s “sponge city” concept—less concrete and more green spaces to exploit stormwater instead of fighting it. Metropolises all over the world are following suit. “Industrialized engineering solutions have messed up the whole water system globally. You have to solve the problem holistically, and the sponge city is a nature-based, holistic solution. It is inexpensive, and it can be done at a small or large scale. You can have your garden, but you also have to plan from the top. It is a sponge planet, it is a sponge countryside, it is a sponge urban district,” stated Konjian Yu.
