Archinect - Features

‘I Seek To Create an Escape From Everyday Life’; A Conversation With Ma Yansong of MAD Architects

2022-10-15T07:16:00-04:00

Much has changed for Ma Yansong since Archinect last spoke to him in 2014. From their roots in Beijing, China, Yansong’s firm MAD Architects has expanded to offices in Los Angeles and Rome, employing over 160 people on major architectural commissions. In 2022 alone, our editorial has offered updates on the firm’s work across continents, be it the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, the Cloud Center in Aranya, China, or the commercial MoLo complex in Milan. Added to this list in October was the Quzhou Sports Park, whose newly-completed stadium marks the first step in what will become the world’s largest earth-sheltered complex.

Following news of the stadium’s completion, Archinect’s Niall Patrick Walsh spoke with Ma Yansong for an insight into the project, and how it represents MAD’s architectural philosophy. We also use the discussion to reflect on Yansong’s own journey through architecture, his role in MAD, and his thoughts on nature, cities, and history. The discussion, ...

Screen/Print #38: Ma Yansong of MAD Architecture's "Shanshui City"

2015-12-21T18:16:00-05:00

Part humanist wake-up call, part architecture manifesto, Ma Yansong’s Shanshui City emerges at a critical point for Chinese urbanism, as urban development accelerates to a breakneck speed of environmental damage and social concessions. Yansong draws stark lines between the Beijing he grew up in and the Beijing where he founded MAD Architects, pointing to the now-endangered urbanist details that made the city of his childhood livable and beautiful. Shanshui City is Yansong’s conceptual strategy for how architecture in Beijing, and elsewhere in the developing world, must retain what is so easily lost – they key being integration with nature.

A new nature: Interview with Ma Yansong of MAD Architecture

2014-05-22T13:05:00-04:00

Ma Yansong is a trailblazing figure for Chinese architecture, having made a name for himself around the world as a business leader and innovative architect. Recently named 2014's Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business, Yansong founded MAD Architecture ten years ago in Beijing, and earlier this year announced the opening of another office in Los Angeles.