Floating Buildings

Some of Ma Yonsong's famous designs are floating buildings. These designs are truly awe inspiring. Like WTC Rebuilt, Tokyo Island, Xiamen Museum. The buildings don't really float, they look like they do but in reality they are being held up by giant columns.

Ma was inspired to do this project after 9/11. He was in America when he designed this project. It was the first "Floating Island" he made. the WTC Rebuilt was not just a machine it was made to be a construction organism. This project later added on to the vertical city Ma began to design.

Another of Ma's proposal projects was Tokyo Island. The island is still in the design process right now. the island was designed to be a floating hotel in the water. The design is similar to the "Floating Buildings" Ma designed before. Based on the design, after awhile coral growing beneath the island while merge with the island showing that man can coexist with nature.

Adding on to the list of proposal projects is the Xiamen Museum. The museum follows along the basic floating building designs, except that the museum is smaller than WTC Rebuilt. The way the museum is designed the surrounding area will reflect of the walls of the museum and portray the surroundings. With light bouncing of the man-made lake and the museum it will truly be a jaw dropping site.

Ma Yonsong

Ma Yonsong is the Principal of MAD, a firm he put together based in Beijing. Ma has done while a lot being an architect during his career before being with MAD, putting together MAD, and his artwork. All of these things make up his career and what he's done for China. In the beginning of his career is one of the more interesting parts.

Most of Ma's more famous works are done with MAD, but he also did a few things with other firms.Ma was an undergraduate in Beijing, but he got his Master's in America at Yale. After he Graduated he started work with Zaha Hadid's firm in London. Rebuilt WTC is another one of his projects that he made in the US while studying at Yale. Ma made a couple designs before he was with MAD. but his best are with MAD.

In 2004 Ma put together MAD with Yosuke Hayano and Qun Dang. MAD stands for Ma-Design. MAD does not only design building's, but also houses, furniture, and even a fish tank. MAD has designed all over the world, in Denmark, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and even in Costa Rica. With MAD Ma has made China even more connected to the outside world.

Most of Ma's Designs are the same as how they where when he began his career. He wanted buildings to float, bend, twist. He would look in to the history of the surrounding area to help with designs of every building. One critic said that Ma's Designs where like floating castles in the sky, but not all his designs are in the sky. He has a couple of designs that are almost perfectly attuned to nature.











Hongluo Clubhouse

X-House

Futuristic Buildings

Ma Yonsong's Buildings are sometimes very futuristic. Many of his buildings look like they where taken out of a sci-fi movie. Like the Erodes Museum, Absolute Towers, and 800M Towers. Although where his buildings are they stick out like a sore thumb. In case is exactly what Ma Yonsong was trying to do.

When Ma Yonsong designed the Erodes Museum he wanted to make different from the rest of the city, to provide interior scenery completely separate to what was outside. From the outside the museum looks like a nucleus made of metal louvers, to reflect and fragment the outside surroundings. The inside of the building is divided by curvilinear walls into several halls that all lead to public space that runs through the museum. Ma also used light to help show off the museum interior with a glazed roof that allows light to pass through into the rooms of the museum. Another building that Ma is famous for is the Marilyn Monroe Building (aka the Absolute Towers).

The Marilyn Monroe Building is what made Ma famous. When he won the competition in Canada, MAD became the first Chinese-based firm to ever win a international competition outside of China. The tower was named Absolute Towers after the road it was built on, but a critic gave it the name Marilyn Monroe Building for its curvy appearance. The tower was sold out on the day it opened and Fernbrook commissioned a second tower to be built but this time for the building to grow larger in the middle, unlike the original tower which grows smaller. Another tower built in a more futuristic design was the 800M Towers.

The 800M Towers is just a proposal right now, but what make it different is that it goes up 400M in the air and then comes back down. Inside the tower is a hotel, an office, and a place to look out and see the entire city. Based on the design of the building the 800M Tower will not only be for work life, but also for metropolitan life. The two towers connect in the middle and at the top, where you are able to cross the the other tower by cable cart. Ma's more futuristic designs can really grab your attention if your just strolling around the city.