73 Quotes by Ma Yansong

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

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

In China, we had some buildings that looked like the White House or wine bottles. All they seemed to represent was bad taste.

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.

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.

Architects like to work in a problematic environment.

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

Architecture is a special kind of career that showcases the accumulations of culture, time, and history.