‘Sponge cities’ architect, Yu Kongjian, dies in plane crash in Brazil

The crash of a small plane in southwestern Brazil killed four people including Chinese landscape architect and urban planner Yu Kongjian, Brazilian authorities said Wednesday.

The accident happened late Tuesday during a landing attempt at a large farm about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the municipality of Aquidauana in Mato Grosso do Sul state, firefighters said.

Yu, who was known for promoting ecologically sound development, was traveling with two Brazilian documentary makers, Luiz Fernando Feres da Cunha Ferraz and Rubens Crispim Jr., who were making a film about the Pantanal wetlands. All three were killed along with pilot Marcelo Pereira de Barros, authorities said.

Yu was know for developing the concept of “sponge cities,” with infrastructure that can absorb rainwater to mitigate flood risks and improve the urban climate.

“In times of climate change,” Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on social media, “Yu became a global reference with his sponge cities, which unite quality of life and environmental protection.”

Yu argued that by creating large spaces to hold water in city centers, such as parks and ponds, extreme rainfall can be absorbed, helping prevent floods. The idea is widely cited in Chinese urban planning, and in recent years Yu worked on projects in other countries including Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

He was known for his “notable contributions to sustainable urbanism, the preservation of biodiversity, and the protection of the planet,” Brazil’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin said on X, adding that Yu’s legacy will continue to inspire those dedicated to ecological cause.

Yu founded the College of Architecture and Landscape at Peking University, one of China’s most prestigious universities. The university did not respond a request for comment.

The military fire department in Aquidauana was called at around 8:10 p.m. local time on Tuesday to respond to a plane crash, firefighters said. A search and rescue operation lasted approximately nine hours.

Yu and the filmmakers were part of a team producing a documentary about the world’s largest tropical wetlands. The Pantanal, fed by tributaries of the Paraguay River and mostly located in Brazil, is a biodiversity hotspot and a popular destination for tourists to see jaguars, macaws, caimans, capybaras and migratory birds in the wild.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2022, Yu criticized much of Asia’s modern infrastructure for being built on ideas imported from Europe, which he said are ill-fitted to the monsoon climate that prevails over much of the continent.

Fu Ting contributed to this report from Washington D.C. and Mauricio Savarese from Sao Paulo.

—Eléonore Hughes, Associated Press

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