Landscapes for Adaptation: Evidence from China in the Work of Kongjian Yu

The climate crisis is now readily evident rather than a future possibility; we must adapt to survive a rapidly changing climate. In the twenty-first century, China has built more landscape experiments in climate adaptation than any other culture. Kongjian Yu and his practice Turenscape have realized hundreds of built experiments in climate adaptation through landscape architecture and planning. Landscapes for Adaptation: Evidence from China analyzes sixty of the most significant of those experiments alongside evidence of their environmental performance. The book assembles a menu of practical strategies and real-world tactics for landscape adaptation in China and around the world.

Charles Waldheim is an American Canadian architect and urbanist based in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where he directs the Office for Urbanization and hosts the podcast Future of the American City. He also serves as the Ruettgers Curator of Landscape at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where he convenes the Larger Landscape Conversation. Waldheim’s research examines relationships between landscape, ecology, and contemporary urbanism. He is an author or editor of sixteen books on these topics including Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory and The Landscape Urbanism Reader. Waldheim’s research and creative practice have been recognized with numerous awards and honors including the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome, the Sanders Fellowship from the University of Michigan, and the Most Admired Educator Award from Design Intelligence.