Designed Ecologies: The Landscape Architecture of Kongjian Yu

Kongjian Yu and his office Turenscape are beyond doubt the foremost landscape architecture practice in China today.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 in11 essays by noted authors and documents22 major projects extensively.

Table of Contents:
Preface: Kongjian Yu’s Challenge Peter Walker Introduction: Ecology with Pleasure William S. Saunders Popular Aesthetics, Public History John Beardsley Value the Ordinary: Shipyard Park, Zhongshan, 2001 An Alternative to the Fiascos of Chinese Urban Development Antje Stokman The Ecological Security Pattern Plan, Taizhou, 2004 Go Productive: Shenyang Jianzhou University (the Rice Campus), Shenyang, 2003 Beyond Survival: The Chicago Art Field, 2009 The Boy Who Read Books Riding a Water Buffalo William S. Saunders Make Friends with Floods: Yongning River Park, Taizhou, 2004 Reshaping The Urban Waterfront: Yingzhou Central River Transformation, Ningbo, 2006 Tread Lightly: The Red Ribbon Park, Tanghe River, Qinhuangdao, 2006 Ecological Surgery: Beach Restoration, Qinhuangdao, 2008 The Activist Educator Fredrick Steiner Let Nature Do Its Work: Qiaoyuan Wetland Park (the Adaptation Palettes), Tianjin, 2008 Gather People: Bridged Gardens, Tianjin, 2008 Infrastructure as Landscape: The Long Sleeve Skywalk, Xuzhou, 2010 The People’s Place: Dujiangyan Square, Chengdu, 2002 Define a New Chinatown: Chinatown Park, Boston, USA, 2007 Myths and Strategies of Ecological Planning Kristina Hill Make the Landscape a Living System: Houtan Park, Shanghai 2010 China’s Water Crisis and Houtan Park’s Response Peter Rowe Reinvent the Good Earth: The National Ecological Security Pattern Plan, 2008 (R)evolutionary Ecological Infrastructure Kelly Shannon Landscape Leads Urbanism: The Beijing Ecological Security Pattern Plan, 2008 Begin with an Alternative Infrastructure: The Wulijie Eco-City Design, Wuhan, 2011 Recover the Mother River: Sanlihe Greenway, Qian'an, 2010 Resilient Rivers: Waterfront Design Concept, Minneapolis, USA, 2011 Make Architecture into Landscape: Low Carbon Apartment, Beijing, 2009 Hallelujah Concert Hall, 2010 Protective Land-Use Policies Cunzhi Hu Afterword: The Persistent Promise of Ecological Planning Charles Waldheim

About the Author :
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" (Birkhauser, 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" (Birkhauser, 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.