ĢƵ

Skip to Header Skip to main content Skip to footer

2025 Childs Lecture: Charles Waldheim with Yufan Gao

Landscapes for Adaptation: The Work of Kongjian Yu

Benjakitti Forest Park: In Bangkok’s urban heart, a former tobacco factory has been transformed into a regenerative system that intercepts stormwater’s destructive force, filters contaminated water, and provides wildlife habitat. Photo Credit: Turenscape.
Benjakitti Forest Park: In Bangkok’s urban heart, a former tobacco factory has been transformed into a regenerative system that intercepts stormwater’s destructive force, filters contaminated water, and provides wildlife habitat. Photo Credit: Turenscape.

Date

October 20, 2025

Time

6:00 p.m.

Location

Cascieri Hall

For More Info

communications@the-bac.edu

Cost

FREE

Categories

Events   Lecture   Childs Lecture  

Over the past thirty years, Kongjian Yu led a counter-current movement in landscape architecture, resisting the destructive forces of industrial urbanization by rooting design in traditional wisdom, ecological science, and nature’s resilience. He rejected the ornamental “Little Feet” aesthetics, and advocated for a “Big Feet Revolution” that redefined beauty through function, productivity, and authenticity in landscape and urban design. Through strategies like Landscape Security Patterns, Nature-Based Solutions, and Sponge Cities/Planet, Yu's work envisioned a future where cities are shaped as living systems that heal rather than harm our planet.

Kongjian Yu’s life was a testament to the power of design to heal, restore, and reimagine what is possible. His influence lives on—not only in the landscapes and cities he helped shape, but in the minds and hearts of students, educators, and practitioners around the world.

Thank you to those who joined us Monday, October 20, 2025, at 6PM EST for the 2025 Childs Lecture featuring Charles Waldheim, North American architect and urbanist, presenting alongside the BAC’s Landscape Architecture faculty, Yufan Gao as they reflected on Professor Yu’s life, work, and legacy.

Date

October 20, 2025

Time

6:00 p.m.

Location

Cascieri Hall

For More Info

communications@the-bac.edu

Cost

FREE

Categories

Events   Lecture   Childs Lecture  

Kongjian Yu

Kongjian Yu, Dean and Professor, Peking University College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture; Turenscape Founder and Design Principal.
Kongjian Yu, Dean and Professor, Peking University College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture; Turenscape Founder and Design Principal. Photo by Turenscape

Kongjian Yu, a farmer’s son and Doctor of Design from Harvard, was the founding dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape at Peking University and a globally recognized leader in ecological urbanism. As the founder of Turenscape, he pioneered nature-based, water-driven solutions for climate resilience—most notably the Sponge City and Sponge Planet concepts—which significantly shaped China’s ecological strategies and gained international influence. His work spanned more than 1,000 projects across 250 cities at multiple scales.

Yu’s contributions earned him the highest honors in the field, including the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Prize, the Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, the RAIC International Prize, and over 100 other international design awards. He held honorary doctorates from Sapienza University of Rome and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and was an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Watch the Lecture Now

Charles Waldheim

Charles Waldheim, John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture, Co-Director, Master in Design Studies Program, and Director, Office for Urbanization at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Charles Waldheim, John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture, Co-Director, Master in Design Studies Program, and Director, Office for Urbanization at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Charles Waldheim is a North American architect and urbanist based in New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is John E. Irving Professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he directs the school’s Office for Urbanization. Waldheim’s research examines the relationships between landscape, ecology, and contemporary urbanism. Waldheim is author, editor, or co-editor of numerous publications on these topics, including Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory, The Landscape Urbanism Reader, Technical Lands: A Critical Primer, Cartographic Grounds, Third Coast Atlas, Case: Lafayette Park Detroit, and Stalking Detroit. Waldheim is recipient of the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome; the Visiting Scholar Research Fellowship at the Canadian Centre for Architecture; the Sanders Fellowship at the University of Michigan; and the Cullinan Chair at Rice University. He has been a visiting scholar at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany.


Yufan Gao

Yufan Gao, PLA, ASLA
Yufan Gao, PLA, ASLA

Yufan Gao, PLA, ASLA, is a full-time core faculty member in the School of Landscape Architecture at the BAC. She holds an MLA from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a B.A. in Textiles from Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Cornell University. Yufan practiced at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and Mikyoung Kim Design before co-founding the independent practice, Studio Gao-Byun. Their studio explores the nuances in the relationships between nature and non-nature, landscape and architecture, with close attention to the trace of time that shapes a place. Her current teaching and research focus on the discourse surrounding landscape aesthetics and how we perceive, interpret, and conceptualize our natural and built environments.


Established in 2008, The Maurice F. Childs Memorial Lectureship Series honors the memory of Maurice F. Childs—a dedicated preservationist and celebrated architect who co-founded the Boston-based firm CBT Architects. The BAC and CBT have a long professional and personal history: CBT co-founders Maurice F. Childs, Richard Bertman, and Charles Tseckares taught at the BAC, along with other firm employees. CBT continues to employ and mentor many students and alumni. CBT principal, Kishore Varanasi AICP, serves on the BAC Board of Trustees.

Shenyang Architectural University Campus: This project demonstrates how agricultural landscape can become part of the urbanized environment and how cultural identity can be created through an ordinary productive landscape. With a population of 1.3 billion people and limited tillable land, food production and sustainable land use is a survival issue that landscape architects must address. Photo Credit: Turenscape.
Shenyang Architectural University Campus: This project demonstrates how agricultural landscape can become part of the urbanized environment and how cultural identity can be created through an ordinary productive landscape. With a population of 1.3 billion people and limited tillable land, food production and sustainable land use is a survival issue that landscape architects must address. Photo Credit: Turenscape.
Zhoukou Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park: Utilizing the concept of a sponge city, the project aims to alleviate flooding risks in the ancient city and purify contaminated waters. Crater-shaped islands emerge as multifunctional spaces, serving the community's diverse needs while drawing inspiration from ancient Chinese cosmological symbols forming a unique pattern language throughout the park, blending ecological sustainability with rich cultural narratives and social engagement. Photo Credit: Turenscape.
Zhoukou Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park: Utilizing the concept of a sponge city, the project aims to alleviate flooding risks in the ancient city and purify contaminated waters. Crater-shaped islands emerge as multifunctional spaces, serving the community's diverse needs while drawing inspiration from ancient Chinese cosmological symbols forming a unique pattern language throughout the park, blending ecological sustainability with rich cultural narratives and social engagement. Photo Credit: Turenscape.
Nanchang Fish Tail Park: A 126-acre badly abused landscape was transformed into a dreamlike floating forest that regulates storm water, provides habitat for wildlife, offers an array of recreational opportunities and gives local residents a new way to connect with nature. Photo Credit: Turenscape.
Nanchang Fish Tail Park: A 126-acre badly abused landscape was transformed into a dreamlike floating forest that regulates storm water, provides habitat for wildlife, offers an array of recreational opportunities and gives local residents a new way to connect with nature. Photo Credit: Turenscape.
Qinhuangdao Red Ribbon Park, The Minimum Intervention Approach to Urban Greenway: Against a background of natural terrain and vegetation, is a “red ribbon” spanning five hundred meters, which integrates the functions of lighting, seating, environmental interpretation, and orientation. This project demonstrates how a minimal design solution can achieve a dramatic improvement to the landscape. Photo Credit: Turenscape.
Qinhuangdao Red Ribbon Park, The Minimum Intervention Approach to Urban Greenway: Against a background of natural terrain and vegetation, is a “red ribbon” spanning five hundred meters, which integrates the functions of lighting, seating, environmental interpretation, and orientation. This project demonstrates how a minimal design solution can achieve a dramatic improvement to the landscape. Photo Credit: Turenscape.

The BAC Events

Oct 24
BAC Fall Campus Tour
04:00 PM
Oct 31
BAC Fall Campus Tour
04:00 PM
Nov 05
2025 Fall Lecture Series: Imen Ameur Nov 5
06:00 PM
Cascieri Hall
Nov 07
BAC Fall Campus Tour
04:00 PM
Events