Chinese landscape architect Kongjian Yu has been awarded the prestigious 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize. The biennial accolade, which offers a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities for the winner, was designed to raise awareness and celebrate excellence in its field, as well as commemorate renowned Canadian landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander who died in 2021.
2023 Oberlander Prize Laureate Kongjian Yu
Kongjian Yu: 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize winner
Yu is prolific and his growing portfolio includes the seminal 'sponge cities' model and campaign, which seeks to address urban flooding, caused by climate change. His proposal was so influential, it was adopted as national policy in China in 2013. Beyond that, Yu is principal designer at the landscape architecture firm Turenscape, a studio of over 400 employees, as well as the founder and leads the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture, and the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Peking University.
Nanchang Fish Tail Park, Nanchang,Jiangxi Province, China, 2021
The award was selected by an international seven-person jury, supported by Oberlander Prize Curator John Beardsley, and was picked out from over 300 worldwide nominations. The jury noted that Yu is a 'brilliant and prolific designer … [who] is also a force for progressive change in landscape architecture around the world.'
Benjakitti Forest Park, Bangkok, Thailand, 2022
Gary Hilderbrand, Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, recently said Yu is the 'all-time greatest spokesperson for landscape architecture in China—a nation that needs environmental rescue on a colossal scale.'
Benjakitti Forest Park, Bangkok, Thailand, 2022
'Kongjian Yu has achieved the extraordinary,' said President and CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation Charles A. Birnbaum. 'He is a landscape architect whose design philosophy and concepts, which interweave nature and culture, and are committed to design excellence, have been adopted as national policy in one of the world’s largest and most populous nations – that has international implications and global impact.'
Benjakitti Forest Park, Bangkok, Thailand, 2022
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