Ma Yansong was born in Beijing in 1975. He graduated from the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and holds a master's degree in Architecture from Yale University. He is currently a professor at the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. During his master's degree in Yale, he first received attention for his project "Floating Islands". He founded MAD Architects in 2004.
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Design philosophy: Shanshui City
The famous Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen proposed the concept of "Shanshui City" in the 1980s. In view of the emerging large-scale cement construction, he put forward a new model of urban development based on 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.
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 RIBA international Fellowship:
“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."
