Ma Yansong

Ma Yansong 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 of 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, One River North, and the Tunnel of Light. His design approach emphasizes a harmonious integration of urban landscapes, natural elements, and human experiences.
He shares his knowledge as an adjunct professor and visiting professor at University of Southern California, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture and Tsinghua University.

Early life and background

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.

Design philosophy: Shanshui City

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.

Signature Projects

Architecture

Absolute Towers, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, 2006–2012, completed
*Best Tall Buildings Americas, CTBUH "Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat"

*No.1, Skyscraper Awards 2012, EMPORIS.

* 2012, ArchDaily.
Ordos Museum, Ordos, China, 2005–2011, completed
*Best Museum, UED
* Winner of "Metal in Architecture", WAN Awards, 2014
Hongluo Clubhouse, Beijing, China, 2005–2006, completed
Sino-steel International Plaza, Tianjin, China, 2006
Huangdu Art Center, Beijing, China, 2008
Hutong Bubble 32, Beijing, China, 2008–2009, completed
Fake Hills, Beihai, China 2008–2015, under construction
*Best Architecture Multiple Residence,
Harbin Opera House, Harbin, China, 2008–2015, completed
Taichung Convention Center, Taiwan, 2009
Harbin China Wood Sculpture Museum, Harbin, China, 2009–2012, completed
Huangshan Mountain Village, Huangshan, China, 2009–2016, under construction
*2012 Top 10 Conceptual Architecture, Designboom
Urban Forest, Chongqing, China, 2009
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China, 2011
Pingtan Art Museum, Pingtan, China, 2011–2016
Chaoyang Park Mixed-use, Beijing, China, 2013–2016
*D21 Chinese Architecture Design in 21st Century, Beijing Design Week
*Chinese Top 10 Buildings
Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, Nanjing, China, 2013–2017
Vertu, travelling Pavilion, Milan, Shanghai, Dubai, Beijing, London
Beijing 2050, Beijing, China
Rebuilt WTC, New York, USA
800m Tower, China
Changsha Culture Park, Changsha, China
KBH Kunsthal, Urban intervention, Copenhagen, Denmark
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, USA

Art

Shanshui - Experiment - Complex, Shenzhen, China, 2013
Moon Landscape, Beijing, China, 2013
"Shanshui City" Exhibition, Beijing, China, 2013
"Shansui City" for , Beijing, China
The Little Rock Fountain Journal
"The Floating Earth" for Alessi
Contemplating the Void in Guggenheim, New York, USA, 2009
Feelings are facts, Beijing, China, 2010
Monster's Footprint, Shenzhen, China, 2009
Superstar: A Mobile Chinatown, Venice, Italy, 2008
Ink Ice, Beijing, China
Fish Tank

Awards and honors

2018 Prix Versailles World Judge
2014 100 Most Creative People in Business, Fast Company
2014 Chaoyang Park Plaza: Chinese Top 10 Buildings
2014 Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort: No.3, Skyscraper Awards 2013, EMPORIS
2013 Designer of the Year, Good Design
2013 D21 Young Chinese Architect Award
2013 Emporis for the world's best new skyscraper
2013 2nd in the category Designer of the Year
2012 The Best New High-rise Building in the America's by the CTBUH "Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat",
2012 International Property Awards
2011 UED museum award
2011 RIBA International Fellowship
2011 Fast Company – one of 10 most innovative companies in China
2009 Fast Company – one of 10 creative people in architecture
2008 ICON magazine – one of 20 most influential young architects
2006 Architecture League Young Architects Award
2001 American Institute of Architects Scholarship for Advanced Architecture Research

Exhibitions

2014 Shanshui City Exhibition, Solo Exhibition, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2014 "The Changing Skyline", Beijing Design Week, Beijing, China
2014 "Future Cities — High Mountain, Flowing Water" China Shan-Shui City Design Exhibition, Berlin, Germany
2014 Building M+: The Museum and Architecture Collection, Hong Kong, China
2013 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Shenzhen, China
2013 West Bund 2013: A Biennial of Architecture and Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
2013 Palace of China – Architecture China 2013 exhibition, Segovia, Spain
2013 Shanshui City Exhibition, Solo Exhibition, Beijing, China
2012 Between the Modernity and Tradition, Solo Exhibition, ICO Museum, Madrid, Spain
2011 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Shenzhen, China
2011 Beijing Design week, Beijing, China
2011 : Changing Vistas: Creative Duration, Chengdu, China
2011 Living, Louisiana [Museum of Modern Art|The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art], Copenhagen Denmark
2011 Verso Est: Chinese Architectural Landscape, MAXXI, Rome, Italy
2010 Rising East: New Chinese Architecture, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany
2010 Feelings Are Facts, Olafur Eliasson+Ma Yansong, UCCA, Beijing, China
2009 Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
2008 Super Star, A Mobile China Town, Uneternal City, 11th Venice Architecture Exhibition, Italy
2008 China Design Now, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2007 MAD IN CHINA, solo exhibition, Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark
2006 Shanghai Art Biennale, Shanghai, China
2006 MAD IN CHINA, Solo exhibition, Diocesi Museum, Venice, Italy
2006 MAD Under Construction, Solo Exhibition, Tokyo Gallery, Beijing, China
2004 1st Architecture Biennial Beijing, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

Quotes

RIBA President Ruth Reed, in the jury report for the 2010 :

"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."