Ma Yansong

“When I started university, I didn't know much about architecture, so I flipped through a lot of magazines, looking at different and exciting images from all over the world. I thought that architecture could be interesting.”

“'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.”

“I have never been to Mars. What will we discover when we get there? A red landscape, quiet horizon, frozen glaciers? Probably all is as beautiful, in its own way, as the Earth was thousands of years ago.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“To allow millions of people to live together on limited land, we have to go to the sky; we have to build a high rise. But we can still build nature and social space into the towers. Each family can have their own courtyard in the sky.”

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

“I actually feel like a very traditional architect.”

“I don't use tools to create things, but I use them to realize things.”

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

“I think architects have a major role in being responsible for illustrating what the future could be. Because of the very strong political and commercial climate, many architects are trying very hard to solve everyday issues, to respond to the authorities.”

“I'm trying to express nature in big cities.”

“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.”

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

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

“Architects think that beauty is a crime.”

“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.”

“We try to turn buildings into landscapes - defying the idea of modernism which sees nature and buildings as two distinct elements.”