Ma Yansong

Ma Yansong (born 1975, Beijing, China) is a Chinese architect whose designs reflect his “Shanshui City” concept, which calls for balancing the natural environment, the urban landscape, and society in new ways through architecture.

Education and early career

Ma graduated from the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture and then attended Yale University, where he earned (2002) a master’s degree in architecture. He worked under preeminent architects Peter Eisenman and Zaha Hadid before forming MAD Architects in 2004.

Absolute World Towers 1 and 2

Ma’s vision of “Shanshui City” was cited as MAD’s core design philosophy and was present in much of his work, reflected in buildings with soft curves, public spaces, and gardens. Absolute World Towers 1 and 2, a pair of residential high-rises in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, were among his best-known designs. Tower 1, a sensuous 558-foot (170-meter) structure affectionately nicknamed Marilyn Monroe by locals, and the slightly shorter (492-foot [150-meter]) and less-curvaceous Tower 2 were completed in 2012. They appear to twist organically up into the sky, standing in stark contrast to the nearby rectangular boxlike skyscrapers. The duo represented Ma’s first major international architectural competition victory (2006).

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Architecture: The Built World

Projects in the 2010s

After winning the Mississauga competition, Ma and his firm completed several projects in China, including the Ordos Museum (2011), the China Wood Sculpture Museum (2013), and the Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort (2012), in which the hotel building is in the shape of an arc overlooking Tai Lake. Ma and MAD also maintained an international presence, continuing to participate in competitions and working on projects in Italy, France, Japan, and the United States.

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

One of Ma’s most notable projects in the United States is the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA), a private institution founded by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, business executive Mellody Hobson, to house the archives from Lucas’s movies and their large collection of art. Ma’s original design was intended for a site along Chicago’s lakefront and, when it was unveiled in November 2015, it showed a shallow conical stone structure—with soft curves and few windows—which appeared to recede effortlessly into the surrounding landscape.

Plans for the museum in Chicago, however, were scrapped in 2016 amid a lawsuit over the use of public parkland. Instead, Lucas and Hobson chose a site in Exposition Park in Los Angeles. The groundbreaking occurred in 2018, and though construction was delayed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and by subsequent supply chain issues, the museum opened in 2026. Ma’s new design, which drew comparisons to a spaceship floating above the landscape or something from one of Lucas’s Star Wars movies, boasts a sustainable design, featuring solar panels, a rooftop garden, and rainwater capture for irrigation across the museum’s 13-acre (5.26-hectare) campus of landscaped gardens.

Awards and honors

Ma garnered many accolades and honors for his work, such as the Architectural League of New York’s Young Architects Forum (2006) and an international fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects (2011). Absolute World Towers was named the Best Tall Building in the Americas for 2012 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and in 2013 took first place in the Emporis Skyscraper Award for 2012.

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