The World’s Most Innovative People Awards, 2016 World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Fellowship, Fast Company’s 2023 Most Innovative Companies.
Harbin Opera House, Yue Cheng Kindergarten Courtyard, Jiaxing Train Station, Quzhou Sports Park, FENIX Museum, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Tunnel of Light, Shenzhen Bay Culture Park
Ma Yansong (Chinese: 马岩松; pinyin: Mǎ Yánsōng); is the principal architect and founder of MAD Architects, a global design practice with offices located in Los Angeles, Rome, and Beijing. Renowned for his bold designs, Ma has led MAD in the creation many significant structures around the world, including the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts, Harbin Opera House, Quzhou Stadium, FENIX Museum, The Yue Cheng Courtyard Kindergarten, Jiaxing Train Station, Shenzhen Bay Culture Park and the Tunnel of Light. His design approach emphasizes a harmonious integration of urban landscapes, natural elements, and human experiences.
Ma Yansong was born in Beijing in 1975. He holds a Master's Degree in Architecture from Yale University and a Bachelor's Degree from the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. He is currently a professor at the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. During his master's degree at Yale, he first received attention for his project "Floating Islands". Ma Yansong founded MAD Architects in 2004.
The famous Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen proposed the concept of "Shanshui City" in the 1980s. Because of the emerging large-scale cement construction, he put forward a new model of urban development based on the Chinese Shanshui spirit, which was meant to allow people to "stay out of nature and return to nature." However, this idealistic urban concept was not put into practice. As the world's largest manufacturing base, a large number of soulless "shelf cities" appeared in contemporary China due to the lack of cultural spirit. Qian Xuesen pointed out that modern cities' worship of power and capital leads to maximization and utilitarianism. "Buildings in cities should not become living machines. Even the most powerful technology and tools can never endow the city with a soul."
To Ma Yansong, Shanshui does not just refer to nature; it is also the individual's emotional response to the surrounding world. "Shanshui City" is a combination of city density, functionality, and the artistic conception of natural landscape. It aims at composing a future city that takes human spirit and emotion at their cores.
The city of the future development will be shifted from the pursuit of material civilization to the pursuit of nature. This is what happens after human beings experience industrial civilization at the expense of the natural environment. The emotionally harmonious relationship between nature and man will be rebuilt upon the 'Shanshui City.'
The freedom and independence (in the siheyuan structure) have had a significant influence on my work. The idea of architecture coexisting with nature fascinates me. So much of today's architecture is like a consumer product - mass-produced. A mass-produced item has no spirit. It's disposable - something to be used once and then simply thrown away. [...] I want to create timeless designs that move with people and inspire people - to make them feel and think.
“Ma Yansong is a young Chinese architect – just 35 – who has come to architectural maturity at a time when his country is beginning to allow the freedom of expression so vital to the artist and sufficient freedom to the economy to allow
his ideas to be realized as buildings. His work expresses the tension between the individual imagination and the
needs of society as a whole."
Instability-Craig Konyk,Anne Rieselbach,Architectural League of New York,Page 19
Conquering the west-Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times [1]
Without imagination there's no history, interview, in STUDIO Architecture and Urbanism magazine, issue#02 Original, Milano, Romolo Calabrese Ed., 2012 [2]
