Ma Yansong
Ma Yansong is founder and principal of Beijing-based architecture studio MAD.
Born in Beijing in 1975, Yansong studied at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture and later at Yale University. He founded MAD architects in 2004.
In 2010 he became the first architect from China to receive a RIBA fellowship, and he is one of the first Chinese architects to win major architectural projects outside his home country.
In 2012 his Absolute Towers in Mississauga, Canada, were named Best Tall Building in the Americas by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. In 2014 he was selected as designer of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in America. In the same year he was named a Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum.
Much of Ma’s work follows the concept of the “Shanshui City”, an urban vision for creating a harmonious relationship between nature and man that is based on the traditional Chinese shanshui paintings.
Ma is a professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and an adjunct professor in University of Southern California and Tsinghua University.
He was named one of the 100 most newsworthy forces in world design in the 2017 Dezeen Hot List.
