SAO PAULO: Chinese landscape architect Kongjian Yu died in a plane crash late on Tuesday in the vast Brazilian wetlands of Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazilian authorities said on Wednesday.
Yu, 62, gained global relevance as a landscape architect and urban planner after the Chinese government adopted his concept of “sponge cities” using nature-based solutions to absorb and retain water instead of concrete infrastructure to channel it away. The concept has since been adopted in hundreds of places in China as well as urban areas from the U.S. to Russia.
Brazilian authorities confirmed that Yu and three other people, the pilot and two local filmmakers, were killed when the aircraft they were travelling in crashed in a rural area near the town of Aquidauana, in the Pantanal wetlands. “It was with sadness and dismay that I received the news of the plane crash,“ President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 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,“ he added.
Yu was featured in the opening program of the Sao Paulo International Architecture Biennale last week. Newspaper Estadao reported that he then joined a trip with filmmakers shooting a documentary about his work.
Peking University’s College of Architecture and Landscape, which Yu founded and led as a professor and dean, on Thursday mourned his death on its website, which was colored in black and white.
“Many of the completed projects led by him have earned international acclaim for their seamless integration of ecological function and artistic expression, offering forward-looking Chinese solutions and wisdom to address global ecological challenges,“ according to an obituary published on the college’s website.
The tribute ended by declaring that Yu’s passing was “a profound loss for Peking University and an even greater regret for the field of ecological landscape design in China and around the world.” Turenscape, a Beijing-based design firm Yu founded in 1998, did not respond to a request for comment outside normal working hours. Yu has led Turenscape as the firm’s principal designer, growing it into a team of more than 500 specialists, according to the company’s website. Throughout his life he also served as an advisor to several central and local government agencies in China – REUTERS