Nieuwe Instituut presents Ma Yansong: Architecture and EmotionNieuwe Instituut presents Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion

• On 17 May 2025, the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam will unveil Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion. This exhibition explores Ma Yansong’s ground-breaking architectural vision.

• Visitors are invited to explore the relationship between humanity, nature, and emotion through dynamic models, spellbinding videos, and interactive installations showcasing MAD’s projects in China, the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, France and the Netherlands.

• The exhibition highlights two decades of designs by the international Beijing-based firm, including upcoming projects such as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, co-founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas.

• Timed to coincide with the opening of Fenix, the new art museum in Rotterdam – for which MAD Architects designed its latest cultural landmark, the Tornado.

Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion offers an unparalleled exploration of the work and philosophy of visionary architect Ma Yansong and the global practice he founded, MAD Architects. Founded in 2004 and led by Ma Yansong, Dang Qun and Yosuke Hayano, MAD Architects has transformed contemporary architecture by fostering deep connections between people, nature, and emotion.

With offices in Los Angeles, Rome and Beijing, MAD continues to push the boundaries of architectural innovation, shaping a future where design transcends functionality to engage the senses and the spirit. The exhibition immerses visitors in the ideas, forms and processes that define Ma’s work, from his critique of modernism and globalisation to his enduring and powerful organic designs.

More than just a display of architectural projects, the exhibition is a multi-sensory experience that engages the senses and emotions through dynamic models, artists’ interpretations and multimedia installations. It connects MAD’s groundbreaking designs with the profound emotional responses they inspire.

Aric Chen, General and Artistic Director of the Nieuwe Instituut and curator of the exhibition, says: “In a remarkably short time, China has produced some of the most compelling and consequential architecture in the world, and Ma Yansong and MAD have been right there at the forefront. We’re delighted to present his first solo museum exhibition outside China in more than ten years, lending further insight into the work of this increasingly global studio.”

Ma’s work has often been described as futuristic, yet his forward-looking vision of the future draws on tradition, particularly the classical Chinese philosophy of shanshui (‘mountain-water’), found in traditional landscape painting. This philosophy reimagines urban environments as spaces that harmonise modern functionality with a poetic connection to nature, restoring our emotional bond with the natural world.

A Shanshui City is not merely an eco-city or garden city, but an innovative approach that seamlessly blends tradition and modernity. It promotes balance, fulfilment, and a deeper relationship between people, architecture, and the natural world, reflecting MAD’s commitment to creating meaningful, human-centred spaces.

The exhibition explores MAD’s formative years during China’s transformative 2000s, a period of rapid urbanisation and social change. During this time, Ma and MAD initiated their MAD Dinners, interdisciplinary gatherings that brought together diverse thinkers to reflect on, challenge and reimagine modernity while exploring architecture’s role in shaping an ever-changing world.

These exchanges inspired speculative proposals, such as Floating Island, a reimagined urban canopy for the site of New York’s World Trade Center, a transformed Tiananmen Square envisioned as a lush green park, and an aquarium designed from the perspective of a fish. These projects reflect MAD’s early commitment to innovation, creativity and reshaping the dialogue between people, the city and the environment – values that remain central to the office’s work today.

MAD’s recent work represents a profound exploration of architecture’s potential to connect people, environments and time. Organised around the themes of Embodied Nature, Connective Landscapes and Layered Futures, the exhibition demonstrates the firm’s commitment to creating spaces that enhance personal experiences, mend fractured urban fabrics and reimagine the future through the lens of history.

Projects such as Baiziwan Social Housing complex in Beijing demonstrate MAD’s dedication to human-centred design that improves lives through active, walkable and interconnected spaces that prioritise placemaking and community building. Quzhou Sports Park, anchored by a 30,000-seat stadium seamlessly integrated into the landscape, redefines sports architecture as land art, blending monumental scale with a harmonious connection to nature. In Los Angeles, the forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art embodies MAD’s visionary approach to biomorphic design, immersive narrative experiences and the integration of sustainability and innovative materials.

As part of the exhibition, visitors will learn about MAD’s design for Fenix, a new museum that tells stories of migration through art. Fenix is the first cultural project in Europe designed by MAD Architects. The Tornado is a double-helix staircase that takes visitors from the atrium of the former Fenix warehouse up to the roof. From there, it offers views across the River Maas, the city of Rotterdam and the Katendrecht peninsula – once one of the first Chinatowns of continental Europe. Fenix is open to the public from 16 May.

Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion can be seen at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam from 17 May to 21 September.

• Initiative: Nieuwe Instituut in collaboration with MAD Architects
• Curators: Aric Chen and Tijn van de Wijdeven
• Spatial design: Ma Yansong, MAD Architects
• Graphic design: Joris Kritis

Accompanying images are available here.

Contact: Keesje Heldoorn, press officer, press@nieuweinstituut.nl