ABSTRACT
The work of China's first private landscape architecture practice, Turenscape, frames the exploration of a professional journey that parallels China's post-reform urban projects with the search for resilience in the synergy of architecture and the environment. In 1998, Kongjian Yu established China's first private landscape architecture firm, Turenscape, having returned from study and practice in the United States in 1997. Yu is committed to the view that contemporary landscape architecture praxis is a vehicle for battling China's environmental crisis. Two projects, Yanweizhou Park and Qinhuangdao Beach Restoration, illustrate a body of work developed by Turenscape, exploring landscape strategies with the potential to mitigate coastal change and make cities more resilient in the face of flooding. Essentially, Turenscape's tri-partite design for Qinhuangdao Beach Restoration consists of a coastal shoreline, intertidal zone, and wetlands. Turenscape's numerous built works in China represent resilient design solutions that utilize adaptive strategies and ecological design principles in the context of climate change.
