Kongjian Yu, creator of China’s ‘sponge cities’, has died in a plane crash in Brazil. Photo / AFP, Handout, Mato Grosso do Sul Fire Department
Kongjian Yu, creator of China’s ‘sponge cities’, has died in a plane crash in Brazil. Photo / AFP, Handout, Mato Grosso do Sul Fire Department
Chinese architect Kongjian Yu, known for his so-called nature-mimicking “sponge cities”, has died in a small plane crash in Brazil with two filmmakers documenting his work, police said today.
The 62-year-old was considered a leading figure in sustainable urban planning; his “sponge cities” replacing concrete surfaces with natural features thatbetter absorb water in flood situations.
The award-winning Yu was in Brazil for the recording of a documentary about his work when he perished with two filmmakers and the pilot in a plane crash yesterday in Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state.
Police said the cause of the accident was not known.
The other three deceased were documentary makers Luiz Fernando Feres da Cunha Ferraz and Rubens Crispim jnr, as well as the pilot, who owned the aircraft.
Brazil’s Council of Architecture and Urbanism, which recently hosted Yu as a speaker at an international conference, said his “sponge cities” concept has been applied in more than a thousand projects in 250 cities.
“His contribution has influenced environmental public policies in China and other countries,” it said in a statement expressing condolences to the architect’s family, friends and colleagues.
