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" '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. "

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" 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

" Since the Industrial Revolution, we tend to use technology to show our power: you know, we build high-rises, towers, big buildings that become symbols of power and capitalism. We don't talk about how emotions and nature can be connected. "

" It's very strange: if you're a philosopher or musician or an artist, people automatically believe you can see the future. Even if they don't like you, they accept your vision as an individual. "

" I would say that many architects are very logical. They start their process from analysis and from rational processes to try and find the 'right' answer, like solving a mathematic equation. "

" 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. "

" In China, it's very easy to make architecture special because anything you design will look different, as most parts of the city are very similar. They make so many massive residential buildings. "

" I think architecture should be a stage, not something too material - more of an environment, not a product. "

" 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. "

" When I was young and used to look at Chinese architecture, there was no clear definition between what was landscaping and what was architecture. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Architects like to work in a problematic environment. "

" I actually feel like a very traditional architect. "

Ma Yansong

Traditional

Feel

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

" The world itself is already a great textbook. "

" People can live in nature, and they won't necessarily destroy it. "

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

" 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. "

" People think that buildings are permanent, but in China, this isn't true; we can always demolish and remake it better. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I'm trying to create architecture as landscape. But I'm not copying nature. "

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

" We need to enter a new era to make nature and humans more emotionally connected in modern cities. "

" Oscar Niemeyer really inspired me. He's from South America, where nature has meaning. And his architecture was not expensive or high tech but artistic and spiritual. I like that. "

" Ultimately, the artistic part of architecture has always interested me. "

Ma Yansong

Interested

Always

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

" The difficulty with big cities does not lie in skyscrapers or high-rises per se; rather, it is the values concealed within those buildings which lead to the loss of our humanity and our sense of spiritual emptiness. "

" 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. "