In the last two decades, China has undergone a period of mega-growth. The expansion seen throughout the region is truly incredible. Key to that development have been the team at Turenscape. Led by Kongjian Yu, they have achieved the remarkable and been justly recognised as one of the Leaders in Innovative and Environmentally Friendly Designs, China, 2020. We profile the firm to see how they’ve made such a strong impact.
Turenscape is a hybrid in every sense of the world. The company’s name derives from three words from two different languages. In Chinese, “Tu” means land, “Ren” means people and “Scape” which means an extensive view in English. Much as the firm combines different languages, it combines the needs of nature and the needs of people. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The ability to combine the needs of man and the needs of nature is what sets Turenscape apart from its competitors. Under the sage leadership of Dr Kongjian Yu, a team of over six hundred professionals have been brought together to explore how humanity can interact with the world at large. They have proven themselves to be incredibly accomplished across the architectural playing field, focusing on providing quality services in Architecture, Landscape architecture, Urban planning and design and Environmental design. The team has been able to take a holistic approach that enhances all of their work moving forward.
With so much skill under one roof, it’s little surprise that the team at Turenscape have been able to have a major impact on the development of China’s architecture from an ecological and design perspective. The team have been involved in over one thousand landscape projects in the country alone, with the influence of the firm spreading up and down the country.
More than two hundred cities have been able to benefit from what Turenscape has to offer. Many firms will find themselves deeply involved in complex work that never comes to fruition, but more than six hundred of the projects that the team have developed have been built.
A name ubiquitous for high quality work, innovative design and an environmentally sound approach, Turenscape has become a firm of international renown. Many countries teach landscape design and regional planning as separate entities, but as China has gone through a period of significant hypergrowth in the last few decades, the importance of combining the two has never been clearer.
Instead of approaching all projects from a practical perspective, namely those of economy and engineering, beauty and elegance play an important role in the design ethos of the company. By ensuring the two are connected, Dr Yu’s team will be able to ensure an exceptional balance going forward that will future-proof the city projects that the firm has been working on.
As the firm continues to push its impressive conception of what design could be onto the people of China, it’s important to note how Dr Yu has developed a standing amongst mayors on a municipal level. By working with people on a ground level, he and his team have been able to propose their ideas with an eye to real, effective and lasting change. With the toxic state of China’s cities as it goes through immense industrial changes, his stance is one at odds with the way of the world.
The image of a green urban infrastructure is not one that can be completed easily, yet it is the direction in which Dr Yu has spent years of his life moving towards. He has brought together a large, talented team and worked directly with officials in order to move more clearly towards this goal. His approach to architecture links the city with a redefined role of the landscape as an aspect of design that exists to enhance.
One of the projects that Turenscape has focused on, therefore, is what the cities of the future will look like. The aims of these cities are simple: to provide clean water and food to citizens, to regulate the climate, to reduce the chance of disease, floods and drought, to support the natural lifecycle of all living things and to encourage a culture that embraces the importance of sustainable development.
This sort of thinking is how Turenscape has found itself at the heart of a revolutionary new approach that could change the way in which China interacts with the environment at large. With many areas at risk of severe flooding, the firm developed sophisticated ‘sponge cities’ which have received official government approval and are now being explored across the country.
A sponge city is one that can hold, clean, and drain water in a natural way using an ecological approach. Instead of finding a technological solution, the project revolves around seeing what nature is able to offer. Naturally, in an area of high industrial development, concrete is the order of the day, but the approval that the team have received from different areas demonstrates a desire to see what potential the concept has. In many ways, this would be the highlight of the company’s work, seeing a new way of thinking come to life across the country.
With a reputation for innovative and environmentally sound designs, the team at Turenscape are seen as leaders in the field. They’ve had a major impact on the Chinese approach to design, and are likely to see their results influence architects around the world. The holistic approach advocated by Dr Yu is what makes them stand apart, and it is also what places them in good stead for the future. Many companies achieve success by reacting to the needs of today. Turenscape has done so by changing what tomorrow will bring.
