Ma Yansong MAD Architects, Beijing Shanshui City Ma Yansong,
Founding Principle of MAD Architects, Beijing will present the next Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning Dean’s Lecture entitled, Shanshui City.
Yansong is recognised as an important voice in a new generation of architects and was hailed as one of the world’s most influential and creative young architects by ICON magazine (2008) and Fast Company (2009). This year alone Yansong has been named 2014 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and was listed in the top 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company. Ranked at 53, Yansong was the only architect featured on the list.
In this exciting Dean’s lecture, Yansong will present the recent projects of MAD Architects and introduce the architectural idea of “Shanshui City”. To Yansong, this idea does not just refer to nature, but is also a social ideal of a future city that reflects individual emotional response to the surrounding world. This idea could be taken as a criticism of urbanisation in contemporary China and a vision for the future of chinese cities, which should combine city density, functionality and connection between nature and city dwellers.
Yansong says, “Development of the city of the future will see a shift from the pursuit of material civilization to the pursuit of nature, aiming at composing a space that takes human spirit and emotion at its core.”
MAD is a progessive practice, developing futuristic architectures, based on a contemporary interpretation of the eastern spirit of nature. MAD was awarded The Best New High-rise Building in the America’s by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) in 2012, and The World’s Best New Skyscraper later in the same year. They have recently been appointed to design the Museum of Narrative Art in Chicago for client George Lucas. The landscape design for this museum has been commissioned from Studio Gang, led by our October Dean’s Lecture speaker, Jeanne Gang.
