Brazilian local time September 23, Professor Yu Kongjian, an internationally acclaimed landscape architect, dean and founder of Peking University's College of Architecture and Landscape, tragically died in a plane crash while filming the documentary Sponge Planet.
The 62-year-old visionary, born in Jinhua, Zhejiang in 1963, earned his master's in landscape architecture from Beijing Forestry University (1987) and doctorate in design from Harvard (1995). Returning to China in 1997, he established Peking University's College of Architecture and Landscape as its inaugural dean. He also launched the award-winning journal Landscape Architecture Frontiers, serving as its chief editor to advance global scholarship.
Yu championed urban design as "the art of survival," integrating theoretical research, teaching and practice to cement landscape architecture as an academic discipline in China. His projects, including the iconic Qijiang Park in Zhongshan, embodied this philosophy.
Transformed from an old shipyard, Qijiang Park opened in 2001 to worldwide acclaim. Its fenceless design dissolved physical and social barriers between the city, its residents and the park, pioneering China's first New Urbanism application. The project innovatively showcased "the culture being ignored" and "the beauty of weeds," reviving historical context while redefining urban open spaces.
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