Yu Kongjian, known as the Frederick Law Olmsted of China, is revolutionizing urban landscapes. According to NPR, his innovative approach to architecture goes beyond aesthetics and focuses on creating “sponge cities” to combat increasing flooding in urban areas. Wired advocates for cities like New York and Los Angeles to embrace this concept, emphasizing the need for more natural landscapes to handle rainfall instead of concrete-dominated environments.
Traditional cities are designed to repel and quickly remove water. However, this approach is no longer effective as it prevents water from soaking into the ground or evaporating, resulting in overloaded infrastructure during heavy storms. As Usman T. Khan explains in Macleans, the concept of sponge cities welcomes water instead of resisting it.
China has taken a leading role in implementing this concept, led by Yu Kongjian. However, Reuters points out the limitations, citing the devastation caused by record rainfall in Zhengzhou despite significant investments in sponge city infrastructure. As described by Matt Simon in Wired, cities can adopt elements of this concept gradually, incorporating permeable pavement, green roofs, green spaces, and implementing stormwater fees to encourage vegetation over pavement. The future cityscape will be spongier, with overtly verdant or subtly integrated features. (Read more flooding stories.)
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