Ma Yansong’s poetic structure celebrated within the Time100 record
Ma Yansong, the founder and director CRAZYHe all the time thought that structure ought to contact the soul as a lot because the horizon mannequin. This 12 months, Time Journal was referred to as on his 2025 record of the 100 most influential folks, a recognition that locations him among the many world figures redefining tradition, design and society. As a part of the official time of the architect profileThe producer and collaborator for a very long time, George Lucas, mirror Ma’s exercise with attribute enthusiasm:
–I used to be a fan of architect Ma Yansong from his first works. His design by no means ceases to amaze me and encourage me. This 12 months, he revealed initiatives that embody a placing constructing in Denver, which is impressed by Canyons, and Fenix, a brand new spiral artwork museum that explores human migration. Like his mentor, the Nice Zaha Hadid, he was on the forefront of a large structure change that can remodel our generations buildings.
MA YANSONG, TIME100, portrait © Getty Pictures
For greater than 20 years, TIME-Ahitect acknowledged ma yansong (see full time100 Right here) He quietly rectified the dialog round what might be cities – favoring the curves over the corners, the emotional resonance over the present and a human reference to nature on pure performance. Primarily based on Beijing studioLoopy, he constructed a physique of labor that mixes structure, artwork and panorama in a unified complete.
From the residential tower with canyon assortment, One River North, in Denver, to the type of Lucas Museum in Los Angeles, its latest initiatives refer much less to domination and extra about expertise. Whether or not you sculp new museums in industrial warehouses in Rotterdam, sinking parks in Shenzhen’s city coast or reworking the historic tunnels in Japan into mild portals, it continues to ask: how can the structure convey a deeper sense and marvel?
Ma yansong, portrait for time | Loopy kindness picture
Shenzhen Bay Tradition Park
On the outskirts of Shenzhen, China’s speedy growth, Shenzhen Bay’s Tradition Park enters the ultimate building part earlier than its September 2025 opening. Conceived as an unlimited inexperienced and civic advanced, alongside the water entrance, the cultural house venture, together with a science and know-how museum, a inventive room and a library. beneath sloping inexperienced roofs. The design contrasts with the tireless verticality of the city cloth of Shenzhen with an open public setting, aiming to create a slower, extra introspective rhythm, alongside town’s coast.
Mad, Shenzhen Bay Tradition Park | Picture © Mir
Framed by two monumental pavilions, just like the stone, the Tradition Park of the Gulf Shenzhen captures the stress between the forces of speedy modernization and the timeless seal. Inside, the massive versatile galleries, flooded with pure mild, are designed to host every thing, from immersive installations to theatrical performances. By mixing the structure, the panorama and the civic life, the venture studies Ma Yansong’s ambition to make use of the structure as a method of feeding the collective id and to offer city areas again to the general public.
Mad, Shenzhen Bay Tradition Park | Picture © Mir
Quzhou Sports activities Park
Additional inwards, within the province of Zhejiang, Mad’s Quzhou Sports activities Park demonstrates a unique articulation of monumental public structure – one which dissolves in its environment. Overlaying nearly 700,000 sq. meters, the park is anchored by a stadium of 30,000 locations that seems as a continuation of pure topography, moderately than an object positioned above it. As an alternative of designing an area just like the fortress, Ma Yansong is contemplating a panorama of the rolling hills and an reasonably priced inexperienced house, the place the boundaries between structure and nature fade.
MAD, QUZHOU SPORTS PARK | Picture © Aogvision
Supported by sixty units of uncovered concrete column partitions and coated with a translucent cover, just like ocean waves, the stadium invitations guests to have interaction with it lengthy after the video games are accomplished. Whether or not you climb the grassy slopes or strolling beneath the floating cover, guests expertise a constructing that breathes with its setting. For MA, the Quzhou Sports activities Park embodies a “non secular connection” between folks and the earth – a perception that structure ought to invite exploration, moderately than to impose itself.
Quzhou Sports activities Park | Picture © Aogvision
A North River
In Denver, COLORADOFast transformation of the North Artwork District River, A North River Brings Ma’s artwork sensitivity within the vertical dimension. Accomplished in 2024, the residential tower of sixteen flooring is outlined by a dramatic shrimp just like the canyon, which is minimize by way of its elegant glass facade, full of waterfall terraces and water options. Impressed by the rugged mountain landscapes of Colorado, the design evokes the sensation of residing a pure canyon within the metropolis, providing a brand new typology for city life.
Loopy, a North River | Picture © Arch-Exist
The central canyon, stretching from the sixth to the ninth flooring, not solely an aesthetic gesture, presents residents communal gardens, shaded birds and immersive conferences with nature. This integration of greenery, water and sculptural kind within the typology of the city tower strengthens Ma’s religion that structure ought to create emotional and sensory experiences. By combining the panorama and structure, One River North reimagates the way forward for excessive density city dwellings as a tactile assembly lived with the pure world.