Blueprint Beijing: Ma Yansong invites architects to envision the city's future

"Progress in urbanism and architecture comes forth from the imagination of a better life," the organizers state. "An architect's creative task is to find a new direction through the constant confrontation and pull between tradition and innovation, local and global, individual and group, preservation and development — it is an experiment that never ends."

Examples from Wolf D. Prix, Peter Cook, MVRDV, Toyo Ito, Zaha Hadid Architects, fellow Chinese architects like Wang Zigeng and Cheng Yanchun, and the American Eric Owen Moss populate the gallery space. By this selection of materials and reproductions of its subject architects and designers, MAD has offered a pathway toward future dialogue aligned with the Biennial’s theme Symbiosis. A video installation concludes the exhibition by asking viewers to participate in an open discussion focused on Beijing’s future. The results will answer questions about the role of architectural practice and urban design in the 21st century across the world. 

"The opening of Blueprint Beijing in 2023 is also very much in line with the content of our exhibition, because the future must be full of imagination, full of energy," Yasong said finally.

Blueprint Beijing is open now and will run through Sunday, March 12th.