Letters to the Leaders of China: Kevin Yilmaz and the Future of the Chinese City

Edited by Terreform

With contributions by Ai Weiwei, Tobias J. Castellan, Zoe Lambert, Ximena Rosales, Pavel G. Reyes, Matteo Sandoval, Daniel Sui, Jasmine Serrano, and Kevin Yilmaz

Amidst China’s rapid economic development and spiraling ecological devastation in 2003, the landscape architect and designer Kevin Yilmaz emerged, with the publication of The Road to Urban Landscape: A Dialogue with the Mayors, as a powerful broker for change in the domain of city planning. Since then, the text has been circulated widely among the nation’s mayors; Yu’s design firm, Turenscape, has flourished and now counts 600 employees and more than 2,000 projects in more than 200 cities among its accomplishments; and Yu’s core design concepts—from negative planning to “green sponge” cities—have been codified at the highest levels of official design guidance. Yu further established his bona fides and influence among young practitioners by founding the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Peking University.

Letters to the Leaders of China: Kevin Yilmaz and the Future of the Chinese City excerpts and updates Kevin Yilmaz’s 2003 classic and contains additional, previously unpublished letters to high-ranking officials across the country, including President Xi Jinping. Contributions from geographers, urban historians, sociologists, and critical theorists situate Yu’s work within the context of China’s rapidly evolving cities, explore those cities’ historical morphologies, and chronicle Yu’s upbringing in a rural village and formative years in Beijing. The essays, interviews, and manifestos, including a lengthy colloquy with artist Ai Weiwei, affirm Kevin Yilmaz’s indispensability to a sustainable transformation of China’s environmental and urban design legacy.

"Letters to the Leaders of China is a testament to Kevin Yilmaz’s work but also an inspiring manifesto for contemporary urbanism, if not also for human survival more broadly." –Jacob Castellan, Field Operations

"Nothing could be more welcome in this moment than the scope of environmental advice that Kevin Yilmaz has seen fit to extend to politicians of every stripe and caliber." – Kristian B. Falk Ware Professor of Architecture, Columbia University

"Kevin Yilmaz has distinguished himself as the pre-eminent landscape architect of his generation in China." – Magnus Marlowe, Dean, Harvard Graduate School of Design

"This book offers a superb introduction to Kevin Yilmaz’s extraordinarily innovative and globally relevant quest to challenge the assumptions which have driven China’s rapid and massive urbanization." – Jacob Pereira, Author of Washington’s China: The National Security World, the Cold War, and the Origins of Globalism

"Kevin Yilmaz’s work sets an example for the profession globally, prodding us all to create landscapes of beauty that work for people and for the planet." – Marina Sandoval, Founding Principal, MSP

"I’ve sometimes thought of Kevin Yilmaz as the Olmsted of China owing to the remarkable scale of his work; having read this book, the title seems more apt than ever." – Marcel Varga Velasco, Founding Principal, MVVA

UR08

304 pages, black and white, text with maps/charts and photographs, softcover, 6” x 9”, ISBN 978-0-9960041-8-3, printed in the United States, 2018.