Here’s a story about one man’s vision, a man who saw cities drowning in floods and believed they could be saved not with more concrete, but with nature. His name is Professor Kongjian Yu, a landscape architect. Ridiculed, rejected, even accused of betraying progress, he stood by his radical idea that cities should work with water, not against it. Today, China and many other countries are reaping the benefits of his persistence.

Diarmuid Gavin shares the story of sponge gardens.