Well-known Chinese landscape architect Kongjian Yu died with three others after a plane crash in the Brazilian wilderness.
Yu, 62, was reportedly killed along with three other passengers Tuesday afternoon after their plane crashed near Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state in the lush Pantanal wetlands near the borders of neighboring Bolivia and Paraguay, according to The Guardian and The New York Times.
The crash of the small four-seater single-engine Cessna killed its pilot and the two Brazilian filmmakers traveling with Yu, Luiz Ferraz and Rubens Crispim Junior, after the plane spiraled after an aborted landing attempt.
Yu and the film crew were on the way to a ranch while shooting a documentary on Yu’s globally renowned work.
The film styled as Planeta Esponja, or Planet Sponge in English, was to highlight the Peking University professor’s groundbreaking theories on his “sponge city” concept and work on how cities around the world can best cope with flooding and other extreme weather-related events due to widening effects of climate change.
Chinese government data suggested in 2012 that roughly 40% of China’s rivers were seriously polluted and unfit for drinking.
Yu deployed ancient Chinese water system methods to reimagine urban planing and water conservation in hundreds of cities across China as part of the Communist nation’s rapid urban industrialization across its vast national landscape.
He recently took part in an architecture and urbanism conference in Brasilia to speak on “sponge city” planning, where he said cities must “remain water, slow down water,” and “embrace water.”
“It’s important to make friends with water,” the late Yu previously said.
Notable deaths of 2025
Robert RedfordHollywood legend Robert Redford (L) and his wife Sibylle Szaggars arrive on the red carpet before the screening of the film “All Is Lost” during the 66th annual Cannes International Film Festival in France on May 22, 2013. Redford, an actor, filmmaker and environmentalist who started the Sun Dance Film Festival and who starred in films such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” died at the age of 89 on September 16. Photo by David Silpa/UPI | License Photo
