Designed Ecologies: The Landscape Architecture of Kongjian Yu

William S. Saunders

Apr 2013 · Walter de Gruyter

About this ebook

Kongjian Yu und sein Büro Turenscape sind zweifelsohne das heute wichtigste Büro für Landschaftsarchitektur in China. Die Größe Chinas und das schier grenzenlose ökonomische Wachstum haben Yu gleichsam laborartige Arbeitsbedingungen beschert: Konzepte, die von westlichen Landschaftsarchitekten nur theoretisch erörtert werden, wurden hier dem Praxistest unterworfen. Kongjian Yus Arbeiten – auch in Europa und Nordamerika zunehmend bekannt und geschätzt – sind von großer Eleganz und qualitativ herausragend in Konzept und Ausführung. Yu ist für seine vom Gedanken der Nachhaltigkeit bestimmte Haltung bekannt, die ihn häufig in Konflikt mit den örtlichen Behörden bringt. Seine Entwurfshaltung wird geprägt von der Wertschätzung des Gewöhnlichen und von Alltagsdingen und einer tiefen Akzeptanz der Natur, auch in ihren bedrohlichen Aspekten, wie Überschwemmungen. Zu seinen bekanntesten Projekten gehören Houtan Park für die Shanghai Expo 2010, der Red Ribbon Park in Qinhuangdao und der Shipyard Park auf einer Industriebrache in Zhongshan. Dieses Buch geht den zentralen Themen in Yus Werk in 11 Essays bekannter Autoren nach und dokumentiert 22 ausgewählte Projekte.

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" (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.