On July 7, the famous architectural media Dezeen published an exclusive interview between its founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and Ma Yansong.

This interview originated from the first International Week Forum of RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) held in London on July 4. The forum invited architects, political and business representatives from all over the world to discuss "the opportunities that new urban issues bring to architects in the changing cities".

As an international honorary member of RIBA in 2010, Ma Yansong was invited to discuss "the role and opportunities of architects in society" with David Chipperfield, Elizabeth Diller, Odile Decq, and Amanda Levete. During the discussion, architects from the East and the West focused on completely different topics. Many Western architects focused on topics such as friction with the government, policy planning, and communities.

• David Chipperfield: Today's cities are full of crises. Architects should actively participate in the construction, improvement and abolition of policies related to urban development.

• Elizabeth Diller: Architects are too powerless in the current social system. Architects should not only respond to policies, but also actively make suggestions.

• Amanda Levete: In addition to focusing on their own business, architects should also be more entrepreneurial, working with different communities and people around the world to do projects that architects are not generally commissioned to do.

• Odile Decq: Architects now design more "objects" instead of caring about bigger problems. Now Paris is losing more and more young people because the city is overdeveloped and has no vision for urban development.

Later, continuing the different views raised by Ma Yansong at the forum, the founder and editor-in-chief of Dezeen had a more in-depth discussion with him. The following is the full translation of the interview (for the English original, please click "Read the original text" at the bottom of the article):

Ma Yansong, an architect from China, believes that architects are getting closer and closer to the secular world. Architects should be people who paint a vision for the future.

"The entire industry should learn the utopian idealism from the predecessors who initiated modernism, metabolism and deconstructionism in the past, and then form a new movement that has a significant impact on society."

Ma Yansong told Dezeen: "Today's architects work too much for practical purposes. We should all be more critical and forward-looking."

At the forum, Ma Yansong said that architects should actively face and solve important issues in the global context, including climate change and the future of cities. However, this voice did not receive the response it deserved.

"I think architects have the responsibility to depict the future. As the political and commercial atmosphere becomes increasingly intense, many architects are busy solving daily issues to cope with various political demands. These daily issues are important, but it does not mean that we can forget our higher responsibility - architects are the depicters of the future."

Ma Yansong said that many young architects nowadays leave their ideals after leaving school and do repetitive and conventional technical work. However, architects of previous generations actively organized various group discussions and devoted themselves to various social movements, which had a huge impact on the world.

"In the past, young architects would work together to raise social issues and discuss with the public, organize various social movements, and have a greater impact on the world. This is what I think the current architectural community needs."

"As for how to depict a better future, some problems cannot be solved by politicians instead of architects. We should bravely point out what a better future should be. Architects need to be visionaries." Ma Yansong further responded.