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" I think, in our modern cities, there are a lot of boxes; there are a lot of straight lines. They often deal with efficiency, the function, the structure. "
Ma Yansong
Think
Structure
Efficiency
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" A shan-shui city is a modern city, a high-density urban situation, but we pay more attention to the environment. We bring waterfalls; we bring in a lot of trees and gardens. We treat architecture as a landscape. "
Ma Yansong
Trees
Architecture
City
" I grew up in Beijing, and there weren't many modern buildings during my childhood. I was influenced by traditional culture - the courtyards, the hutongs, the old city, and all the art forms - so, very naturally, I brought this to my practice. "
Ma Yansong
Culture
Practice
Art
" A pool at the edge of the ocean is the simplest geometry, yet you feel connected to the sea. In a forest with the mountains in the background, you also feel the connection to nature, yet it's a very complex geometry. I think architecture is about controlling these feelings. "
Ma Yansong
Nature
Mountains
Think
" Architecture is about experience: not only visual but also what you can touch, what you can feel. "
Ma Yansong
Feel
You
Architecture
" Sometimes I sketch and then scan my sketch directly to make the curves more freehand. I don't want to make perfect industrial curves. "
Ma Yansong
Curves
Want
Sometimes
" 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. "
Ma Yansong
Forest
People
Uncomfortable
" The way we do our architecture is to show that we can come up with our own solutions. We don't just take orders. "
Ma Yansong
Show
Own
Way
" My first impression of Beverly Hills was that it had a landscape of small houses built by famous architects, so I didn't want to make a big block or sculpture here; I wanted to make a community rooted to the place. "
Ma Yansong
Famous
Small
Community
" The city of the future development will be shifted from the pursuit of material civilisation to the pursuit of nature. This is what happens after human beings experience industrial civilisation at the expense of the natural environment. "
Ma Yansong
City
Future
Human
" A lot of ancient poetry sees in nature a reflection of human emotions, and in a post-industrialized era, once people have become more aware of the necessity of a more harmonious relation between man and nature, we need to build cities which can connect with human spiritual needs instead of being merely functional. "
Ma Yansong
Man
Spiritual
Reflection
" China has some cities, traditional cities, with a long history. They are so beautiful, and they were planned so smartly. I call them gardens on the city scale. For example, Beijing has mountains, waters, lakes, bridges, towers. It was a very poetic city. "
Ma Yansong
Mountains
Beautiful
History
" There must be a way to combine the high rise and high-density environment with nature. Maybe we can have our gardens in the sky. "
Ma Yansong
Sky
Way
Our
" I grew up in the old neighborhood of Beijing where you had a courtyard and trees. Actually, the whole of Beijing was a garden - the Forbidden City - and the lakes and gardens in the city center were all artificial. "
Ma Yansong
Garden
You
Neighborhood
" 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. "
Ma Yansong
Nature
People
Sky
" Architects think that beauty is a crime. "
Ma Yansong
Crime
Architects
Beauty
" We try to turn buildings into landscapes - defying the idea of modernism which sees nature and buildings as two distinct elements. "
Ma Yansong
Buildings
Two
Turn
" 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. "
Ma Yansong
Nature
Culture
Care
" I'm trying to create architecture as landscape. But I'm not copying nature. "
Ma Yansong
Architecture
Nature
Trying
" When I graduated from high school, I thought I wanted to make science fiction movies, so I applied to film school, but I couldn't get in. A professor told me I should try architecture instead. "
Ma Yansong
Science
Thought
School
" Ultimately, the artistic part of architecture has always interested me. "
Ma Yansong
Interested
Me
Always
" 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. "
Ma Yansong
Try
Architecture
Mountain
" A door handle is very symbolic to me. It is the first object that one will interact with before entering a new space. "
Ma Yansong
New
Space
Will
" If we're talking about the urban landscape as an advanced, forward-thinking art form, there must be some intellectual thinking involved. "
Ma Yansong
Talking
Urban
Art
" I think architecture should be a stage, not something too material - more of an environment, not a product. "
Ma Yansong
Architecture
Environment
Stage
" Traditionally, in the Eastern World, man and nature are close: men find happiness and prosperity in the beauty of nature, even if the nature is actually built to match this very need. "
Ma Yansong
Beauty
Nature
Men
" The way a human can coexist with nature has to be at the spiritual level. "
Ma Yansong
Human
Level
Spiritual
" Chinese people need to be aware of their present and ask, 'What's our culture? What can we bring to the world?' I don't think there's anything wrong with that. "
Ma Yansong
Present
Think
World
" Architecture is a special kind of career that showcases the accumulations of culture, time, and history. "
Ma Yansong
Time
Culture
History
" I don't like to talk about sustainability, because sometimes I see green buildings that don't appear any different from those in the past. "
Ma Yansong
Green
Buildings
Sustainability
" We need architects to be visionaries. "
Ma Yansong
Architects
Need
Visionaries