Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
Yu Kongjian, lauded by Time magazine as China's pre-eminent landscape architect, discussed the state of his field in China during a public lecture held Sept. 6 at the Langford Architecture Center.
Yu, professor of urban planning and landscape architecture at Beijing University, visited with students in classroom settings prior to his lecture.
"China needs a dramatic shift," Yu told Time's Susan Jakes in its April 3, 2006 issue. "We've misunderstood what it means to be developed. We need to develop a new system, a new vernacular, to express the changing relationship between land and people."
Kongjian's efforts to effect change have included creating the academic department where he now teaches, wrote Xin Wu in a biography published online by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. An institute of Harvard University, Dumbarton Oaks is dedicated to supporting scholarship in Byzantine, garden and landscape, and pre-Columbian studies.
"Yu convinced people, from the university planning committee to the national education administration, of the importance of landscape architecture as a discipline," wrote Xin. "Due to his strenuous efforts, China's first graduate school of landscape architecture was established in 2003, offering two accredited master's degree programs with 60 - 70 graduate students each year and a wide connection with universities worldwide."
He is also the owner, president and design principal of the firm, Turenscape, whose designers provide services in architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning and design.
The firm's work has garnered awards from the Urban Land Institute, the World Architecture Festival, the China Real Estate Chamber of Commerce, The World Architecture Festival, the organizing committee of the 6th China International Garden and Flower Expo, and many others.
A detailed bio of Kongjian, with links to his projects is available on the Dumbarton Oaks website.
- Posted: Sept. 6, 2010 -
Contact: Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.
Dr. Yu Kongjian
