The Sun Tower, designed by Ma Yansong, has been unveiled at the Guangdong Museum of Art.

Commissioned by the 2024 Guangzhou Design Triennial “The Temperature of Presence,” Ma Yansong designed the art installation Sun Tower.

Main Visual Rendering of "Sun Tower"

Sun Tower is Ma Yansong’s speculative vision for future urban living. The tower resembles a giant crystalline tree, continuously growing upward and erupting with floating, bubble-like residential units in gradient hues of orange to yellow. These dwellings appear to hover above the city. Made from transparent nanomaterials, the bubbles allow sunlight to pass through freely, providing continuous natural illumination for each unit.

"Vertical Floating Dwellings" propose returning forests and land to humanity, while offering a new vision for how people might live and move in the cities of the future.

This imaginative installation is situated in the central courtyard of the Guangdong Museum of Art, thoughtfully echoing the theme of the Triennial. It becomes a “warm” public space welcoming visitors of all ages, backgrounds, and regions to gather, experience the chemistry between reality and imagination, and engage in boundless speculation about the future.

Sun Tower
Guangdong Museum of Art
2024

Type: Installation
Dimensions: 12 × 9.2 × 8 meters
Materials: Mirror-finish stainless steel, PVC membrane

Principal Partners: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano
Design Team: Huang Juntao, Zheng Chengwen, Zhang Zhonglin

On view at the Guangdong Museum of Art through May 31, 2024.

Guangzhou Design Triennial

The Guangzhou Design Triennial is an academic platform independently curated by the Guangdong Museum of Art and has become one of China’s most influential art events. Since the inaugural Guangzhou Contemporary Art Triennial in April 2002, six editions have been successfully held.

As a research-driven triennial focused on interdisciplinary design, it aims to build a discourse around design that transcends technical or conceptual boundaries. Through perspectives rooted in the humanities—such as history and sociology—it seeks to express creativity and vitality, reflecting a belief in aesthetic sensibility, rationality, innovation, and humanistic values.