Ma yansong design philosophy
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Ma Yansong is a Beijing-born architect (1975) recognized as an important voice in a new generation of architects. He graduated from the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Ma attended Yale University after receiving the American Institute of Architects Scholarship for Advanced Architecture Research in 2001 and holds a master's degree in Architecture from Yale.
He shares his knowledge as an adjunct professor at the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Tsinghua University, and the University of Southern California. Ma Yansong's journey is a continuous narrative unfolding, exploring innovation and pushing the boundaries of what we perceive as the built environment.
Since the founding of MAD in 2004, his works in architecture and art have been widely published and exhibited. Ma Yansong was awarded the 2006 Architecture League Young Architects Award. In 2008 he was selected as one of the twenty most influential Young Architects today by ICON magazine and Fast Company named him one of the ten most creative people in architecture in 2009.
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Ma Yansong
Chinese architect
Ma Yansong | |
|---|---|
Ma Yansong / MAD Architects | |
| Born | 1975 (age 49–50) Beijing |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Alma mater | Yale University, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | 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. |
| Practice | MAD architects |
| Buildings | 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 |
| Projects | Harbin Opera House, Yue Cheng Kindergarten Courtyard, |
In this Chinese name, the family name is Ma.
Ma Yansong (Chinese: 马岩松; pinyin: Mǎ Yánsōng); is the principal architect and founder of MAD Arch
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In the 80s, the exiled Chinese rocket scientist Qian Xuesen envisioned a more humane form of development that would integrate nature with urban life. He called it “Shanshui City,” after a style of landscape painting that arose in China in the 5th century. Today, this utopian ideal has been invigorated and substantiated in the practice of Ma Yansong, who, as founder of MAD Architects, has spent the last fifteen years orchestrating a harmony of the natural and the manmade. From his residential buildings outside Toronto (known as the “Marilyn Monroe” towers for their shapely curves) to his Harbin Opera House, an undulating sculptural form that disappears into the city’s snows and marshes, Ma’s architecture rejects rationalist, modernist tropes in favor of expression, intuition, and emotion.
Ma was born in Beijing in 1975. Two years after graduating from Yale, he set up his own practice, competing with — and winning commissions over — such former mentors as Zaha Hadid. On a cold November day, less than
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