lecturesonarchitecture.net: 2008 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander lecture: Kongjian Yu, turenscape, Beijing October 10, 2008

The 2008 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander lecture:

Kongjian Yu, turenscape
Beijing, China
http://www.turenscape.com

Dr. Kongjian Yu received his Doctor of Design Degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1995. He is the founder and dean of the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at Peking University and is founder and president of turenscape, one of the largest private landscape architecture firms in China.

Quote:

"Yu Kongjian, China's pre-eminent landscape architect, was brought down from Beijing to lend the project some cachet and, as is often the case, his first move was to throw a wrench into other people's plans. Zhongshan didn't need more flowers, Yu told the city officials; it didn't need fountains, ornate wrought-iron fences, or hedges shaped like animals. Instead of bulldozing the shipyard, he proposed, they could put it to new use. A gantry crane would make an interesting gate, a crumbling water tower could become the base of a lighted beacon. Instead of grass, the city should grow weeds. Zhongshan's leaders found the plan unsettling. 'We wanted something distinctive, but this made us nervous,' says He Shaoyang, then head of the city's planning commission. 'It wasn't like a Chinese garden with a rock here and a tree there.' But, in time, the ecological soundness and low cost of Yu's ideas won them over. 'After all,' says He, 'Zhongshan has a lot of parks. They shouldn't all have to look the same.'"

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501060410-1179413,00.html

Sponsored by The Vancouver Leauge for Studies in Architecture and the Environment
and
UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
(http://www.sala.ubc.ca)

Robson Square
C300 Theatre
General Seating (arrive early)

Official Website: http://www.lecturesonarchitecture.net