Urban architecture inspired by mountains, clouds and volcanoes

Taking inspiration from nature, architect Ma Yansong designs breathtaking buildings that break free from the boxy symmetry of so many modern cities. His exuberant and graceful work -- from a pair of curvy skyscrapers that "dance" with each other to an opera house that looks like a snow-capped mountain -- shows us the beauty of architecture that defies norms.

I am an architect.

And this picture shows the city
that I come from,

Beijing, China.

And old Beijing is like
a very beautiful garden,

you can see a lot of nature.

When I was a kid,

I learned to swim in this lake

and I climbed mountains
every day after school.

But after getting older,

we built more and more modern buildings.

And they all look the same.

They all look like matchboxes.

Why are modern buildings
and cities full of these boxy shapes?

In this photo,
you actually see two cities.

The one on the left is New York,

and the one on the right
is Tianjin, a Chinese city

that's being constructed.

And they have very similar skylines.

Maybe they also follow the same principle.

You know, competing for density,

competing for more space,

competing for efficiency.

Therefore, modern architecture

becomes a symbol of capital and power.

Chinese cities are building a lot,

they're also, you know,

not only competing
for this space and height,

they're also learning a lot
from North American urban strategies

[and] also repeat a lot from city to city.

So here, we call it
1,000 cities with one face.

So as an architect in China,

I have to ask myself,
what can I do about it?

One day, I was walking on a street,

I saw people selling fish.

And they put the fish
in this cubic fish tank.

So I was asking the same question,

why a cubic space for fish?

Do they like cubic space?

(Laughter)

Obviously not.

So maybe the cubic space,
cubic architecture,

is cheaper, is easier to make.

So, I did this small research,

I put a camera and I tried
to observe how fish behave

in this cubic space.

And then I found
they probably weren't happy.

The cubic space wasn't
the perfect home for them,

so I decided to design
a new fish tank for them.

I think it should be more organic,

it should be a more fluid space inside.

More complex interiors.

I think they should feel happier
living in this space,

but I wouldn't know
because they don't talk to me.

(Laughter)

But one year after,

we got this opportunity
to design this real building for humans.

This is actually a pair of towers

that we built in Mississauga,
a city outside Toronto.

And people call this
Marilyn Monroe Towers --

(Laughter)

because of its curvature.

And the idea was to build a tower,

high-rise, residential tower,
but not a box.

It's more inspired by nature,

with the sunshine and wind dynamics.

After we finished
designing the first tower,

they told us, you know,

"You don't have to design the second one,

you just repeat the same design,

and we pay you twice."

But I said, "You cannot have
two Marilyn Monroes standing there."

And nature never repeats itself,

so now we have two buildings
that can dance together.

So I have this question for myself.

You know, why, in the modern city,

we often think architecture
is a machine, is a box?

So here, I want to see how
people looked at nature in the past.

By looking into this Chinese
traditional painting,

I found that they often mixed

the nature and the artificial, man-made,
in a very dramatic way,

so they create this emotional scenery.

So in the modern city, my question is:

Is there a way that we don't separate
buildings and nature,

but combine them?

So there's another project
that we built in China.

It's a quite large residential complex.

And it's located in a very
beautiful nature setting.

To be honest, the first time
when I visited the site,

it was too beautiful.

And I almost decided to reject the project

because you feel as a criminal
to do anything there.

I don't want to become a criminal.

But my second thought was,

if I didn't do it,

they would just put, you know,
standard urban towers there, anyway.

And that would be a pity.

So I decided I had to give it a try.

So the way we did that was

we took the contour lines
from the existing mountains,

and we took those lines
and then translated them into a building.

So those towers are actually
taking the shapes

and geometries from the nature.

So each building has a different shape,

a different size, different height.

And they become
the extension of the nature

[where] they're situated.

And you know,

people think we use computer sometimes

to design this kind of architecture,

but I actually use a lot of hand sketch,

because I like the randomness
in the hand sketch.

And they can carry sort of emotions

that cannot be made by computers.

Architecture and humans and nature
can coexist together

and are having a good
relationship in this photo.

Actually this guy in the photo
is one of the architects on our team.

I think he's been enjoying
the beautiful nature scenery,

and feeling relieved
that he is not part of the criminals --

(Laughter)

in the end.

Back to the city,

in Beijing, we were asked
to design these urban towers.

And I made this model.

It's an architecture model,

looks like a minimountain and minivalleys.

I put this model on my table,
and I watered it every day.

And years later,
we completed this building.

And you can see how my hand sketch

is being translated
into the real building.

And they look quite similar.

It looks like a black mountain.

And this is how this building
is situated in the city.

It's on the edge of this beautiful park.

It's different, very different
from the surrounding buildings,

because other buildings are trying
to build a wall around the nature.

But what we're trying to do here

is to make the building itself
as a part of nature,

so we can extend the nature
from the park into the city.

So that was the idea.

A Chinese art critic drew this painting.

He put our building in this painting.

Can you see there's a black,
tiny mountain?

That looks very fit into this painting.

However, in this reality,

our design was being challenged

that it looks so different
from the surroundings.

And they asked me to modify my design,

either color or shape,

to make the building
fit the context better.

So my question was,

why it fits this traditional,
you know, natural context,

better than the reality?

Maybe there's something wrong
with the reality.

Something wrong with the context.

In the very northern part of China,

we also built this opera house.

It's an opera house next to the river,

in the wetland park.

So we decided to make this building
part of the surrounding landscape

and merge into the horizon.

The building literally
looks like a snow mountain.

And people can walk on the building.

During the day or when there's no opera,

people come here,
they can enjoy the views,

and they can continue
their journey from the park

onto the building.

When they reach the rooftop,

there's an amphitheater
that's framing the sky,

where they can sing to the sky.

Inside the opera,

we have this lobby
with a lot of natural light,

and they can also enjoy
this semi-indoor-outdoor space,

and they can see
the beautiful view around them.

I've been building several mountains,

and here I'm trying to show you

one building that I think
looks like a cloud.

It's the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts

that's being constructed
in the city of Los Angeles.

It's a museum created by George Lucas,

the creator of the "Star Wars" movies.

Why a building that looks like a cloud?

Because I think, I imagine,
the cloud is mysterious.

It's nature.

It's surreal when this natural element
landed in the city.

And it makes you feel curious about it,

and you want to explore it.

So that's how the building
landed on earth.

By lifting this museum,

making it float above the ground,

we can free up a lot of landscape
and space underneath the building.

And then we can, at the same time,

create this roof garden above the building

where you can visit and enjoy the view.

This museum will be completed
in the year 2022,

and you're all invited
when it's completed.

So after building all these
mountains and clouds,

now we're building these volcanoes

back in China.

This is actually a huge sports park

with four stadiums in it,

with one football stadium
[with] 40,000 seats in there.

So it's a very large project.

And you see from this photo,

you can hardly tell where there's building
and where there's landscape.

So the building becomes a landscape.

Even becomes a land art,

where people can walk around the building,

they can climb this building

as they're wandering in this volcano park.

And this rendering shows
one of the spaces in those volcanoes.

This is actually a swimming pool

with natural light coming from above.

So, what we're trying to create

actually is an environment
that blurs the boundary

in between architecture and nature.

So architecture is no longer
a functional machine for living.

It also reflects the nature around us.

It also reflects our soul and spirit.

So, as an architect, I don't think

in the future we should repeat
those soulless matchboxes anymore.

I think what I'm looking for
is the opportunity

to create a future

with harmony in between humans and nature.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)