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The Designer Who’s Trying to Transform Your City Into a Sponge
Kongjian Yu pioneered China’s “sponge city” concept—less concrete and more green spaces to exploit stormwater instead of fighting it. Metropolises all over the world are following suit.
If engineers can slow the flow of that water and allow it to soak into the Earth instead of running away—using rain gardens, spreading grounds, permeable pavers, and urban wetlands—that simultaneously reduces flooding and refills underlying aquifers. That’ll be increasingly critical as the planet warms and droughts intensify: Sponge cities aim to bank water for a rainy day, or more accurately, a parched one. In Los Angeles, they have spreading grounds—open areas hundreds of feet across where water is allowed to soak into the aquifer—but they’re also tearing up thin strips of roadside and putting in greenery.
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