About MAD

Shanshui is an idealized worldview developed by the ancient Chinese through extended contact with the natural world, a worldview that integrates the everyday life of humanity with the impulse to seek spiritual refuge in nature.

1 — Reimagining the Urban Ideal

Contemporary cities, shaped by modernism and industrialization, prioritize efficiency, order, and control. While these principles have enabled rapid urban development, they have also produced a landscape of glass boxes, concrete slabs, and mechanical repetition. As urban dwellers, we often feel detached—from nature, from community, and even from ourselves. The city becomes a space of isolation rather than inspiration. Shanshui City critiques this mindset and asks: what if we designed cities not only for function but for feeling?

Drawing inspiration from ancient Chinese shanshui paintings, which depict misty mountains, flowing rivers, and poetic vistas, Ma Yansong offers a new way of seeing the urban fabric. These paintings are not literal representations of nature but emotional interpretations of space—places where people can imagine themselves within a larger cosmic order. Shanshui City borrows this spirit and applies it to modern architecture and planning, where the city becomes an extension of the landscape, and buildings are shaped like natural forms, gently integrated into their surroundings.

For us at MAD, this philosophy has become a guiding principle. It allows us to design not just with metrics but with meaning. Through this lens, a skyscraper is no longer a symbol of economic ambition alone, but also a vertical mountain—alive, textured, and responsive to its environment. The city, in this vision, is not a machine—it is a living, breathing ecosystem that honors emotion, beauty, and the ancient connection between people and place.

2 — Building a New Nature

Too often, “nature” in the urban context is reduced to decorative patches—parks framed by high-rises, rooftop gardens added as afterthoughts. These gestures, while well-meaning, fail to challenge the core of how cities are designed. Shanshui City redefines this relationship by proposing a deeper integration: nature as a structuring force rather than surface treatment. In this model, terrain, light, water, and vegetation become inseparable from architecture and urban form.

Our work at MAD explores this idea by designing buildings that feel alive. Projects like the Harbin Opera House rise organically from the landscape, their forms shaped by wind, water, and snow. Interiors glow with natural light, and circulation flows like a river through space. This is not biomimicry for aesthetic’s sake—it is a commitment to creating emotional environments that echo nature’s logic and spirit. In such spaces, people don’t just move—they wander, feel, and connect.

Moreover, Shanshui City positions nature as a cultural force. In Chinese philosophy, nature is not something to be conquered but something to live in harmony with. By channeling this worldview, we aim to create architecture that is sensitive, immersive, and meaningful. In a time of climate urgency and urban burnout, we believe this approach offers a blueprint not just for beauty—but for healing. The city becomes a garden again, a spiritual terrain where humanity can re-root itself.

3 — Toward a Spiritual Urban Future

The modern city has mastered efficiency but lost something essential: a sense of wonder. As architects, we must ask not only how people live, but how they feel. Do our buildings uplift or exhaust? Do our streets invite reflection or anxiety? Shanshui City answers these questions by proposing an urban model that prioritizes emotional resonance and cultural continuity. It is a call to re-enchant the city—to design spaces that speak to the soul as well as the senses.

Spirituality in architecture does not mean religion—it means connection. Connection to place, to others, and to something larger than ourselves. In projects like Chaoyang Park Plaza, we sculpted vertical towers that resemble mountain peaks emerging from water—monuments not to power, but to inner stillness. Public space becomes ceremonial. Light becomes symbolic. The result is a sense of awe, reminding us that cities can be spaces of quiet reflection, not just economic engines.

Ultimately, Shanshui City is about reconciling the ancient and the future. It asks us to remember what it means to be human in a rapidly changing world. By merging poetic intuition with technological innovation, MAD seeks to build cities that inspire—not just function. In this vision, the future is not only green and smart, but also profound. A city, in our eyes, is successful not when it is complete, but when it continues to awaken feeling, memory, and meaning in those who walk its streets.