Ma Yansong Quotes

A lot of ancient poetry sees in nature a reflection of human emotions, and in a post-industrialized era, once people have become more aware of the necessity of a more harmonious relation between man and nature, we need to build cities which can connect with human spiritual needs instead of being merely functional.

Architecture is a special kind of career that showcases the accumulations of culture, time, and history.

We need architects to be visionaries.

The shan-shui city idea is trying to bring traditional values and ways of living to modern high-rise architecture.

In our traditional culture, people have a very different view towards nature than in Western culture. We consider humans as part of nature. But in the West, they talk about protecting nature. That’s a joke because nature doesn’t care; it’s humans who need to protect themselves.

The architecture scene in China is the most open and free climate compared to many other places. You can find many opportunities.

Architects think that beauty is a crime.

China is a place where you can experience two very contrasting things coexisting. First, the rich, cultural history of the country – and, second, rapid urbanization.

I don’t use tools to create things, but I use them to realize things.

Chinese people need to be aware of their present and ask, ‘What’s our culture? What can we bring to the world?’ I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

In China, it’s very easy to make architecture special because anything you design will look different, as most parts of the city are very similar. They make so many massive residential buildings.

In a traditional Japanese or Chinese garden, it’s not only about the building or temple but about the whole setup – the structure, the landscape, the light, the plants, the water. The whole experience that makes your life there so beautiful.

I actually feel like a very traditional architect.

If you look at ancient Chinese paintings, you see mountains, but they are not real mountains; it is something the artists imagined.

Since the Beijing Olympics in 2008, our office has been discussing how we can make architecture more human and at one with nature. We need to ask ourselves, what legacy do we want to leave behind on humankind‘s urban culture?

People think that buildings are permanent, but in China, this isn’t true; we can always demolish and remake it better.

China has some cities, traditional cities, with a long history. They are so beautiful, and they were planned so smartly. I call them gardens on the city scale. For example, Beijing has mountains, waters, lakes, bridges, towers. It was a very poetic city.

A shan-shui city is a modern city, a high-density urban situation, but we pay more attention to the environment. We bring waterfalls; we bring in a lot of trees and gardens. We treat architecture as a landscape.

‘Shan shui’ you can literally translate as ‘mountain and water.’ In traditional Chinese culture, there are a lot of paintings about shan shui, but now we’re talking about a shan-shui city.

Tiananmen Square is a sensitive topic because many things happened there. The idea of turning the plaza into a forest makes many people feel uncomfortable.

Chaoyang Park Plaza is about how to carry the traditional culture into a new format in modern architecture. Instead of building a boundary between the city and the park, I tried to design this building to emerge from the natural landscape.

When I was young and used to look at Chinese architecture, there was no clear definition between what was landscaping and what was architecture.

The difficulty with big cities does not lie in skyscrapers or high-rises per se; rather, it is the values concealed within those buildings which lead to the loss of our humanity and our sense of spiritual emptiness.

We proposed Tiananmen Square – this very empty political square in the city centre – should turn green. Maybe in the future, this space could become a very human and open urban space. And if that happens, I think that all the cities around China will follow to change.

If we’re talking about the urban landscape as an advanced, forward-thinking art form, there must be some intellectual thinking involved.

The world itself is already a great textbook.

Architects like to work in a problematic environment.

Oscar Niemeyer really inspired me. He’s from South America, where nature has meaning. And his architecture was not expensive or high tech but artistic and spiritual. I like that.

I don’t like to talk about sustainability, because sometimes I see green buildings that don’t appear any different from those in the past.

Instead of making grand structures and beautiful buildings, we should focus on the environment and the urban space and how you encourage people to live.

There must be a way to combine the high rise and high-density environment with nature. Maybe we can have our gardens in the sky.

Historically, sci-fi movies have played an important role in inspiring young people.

Architecture is about experience: not only visual but also what you can touch, what you can feel.

In China, we had some buildings that looked like the White House or wine bottles. All they seemed to represent was bad taste.

Traditionally, in the Eastern World, man and nature are close: men find happiness and prosperity in the beauty of nature, even if the nature is actually built to match this very need.

I’m trying to express nature in big cities.

Sometimes I sketch and then scan my sketch directly to make the curves more freehand. I don’t want to make perfect industrial curves.

When I graduated from high school, I thought I wanted to make science fiction movies, so I applied to film school, but I couldn’t get in. A professor told me I should try architecture instead.

Early in my career, I tried to bring an artistic feeling to architecture. That’s really the intent and impression of what I think about: context, space, shapes, and landscape.

When you look at classical structures, they’re often linked to literature, music, or a poem. They were constructed by master builders, which means it’s not something standard that you can copy.

I think where traditional values are concerned, Chinese people see nature as very symbolic. It’s a form of culture.

The beauty of architecture is it involves work that stretches over a very long time but often starts in one instant, with just one emotion, a kind of instinctual response.

What if we treat the high-rise like a mountain, or we have gardens in the sky, or waterfalls? I think that’s the most challenging thing I want to try in my architecture.

A door handle is very symbolic to me. It is the first object that one will interact with before entering a new space.