Ma Yansong Solo Exhibition Opens at the Nieuwe Instituut

The exhibition "Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion," at the Nieuwe Instituut in the Netherlands, which runs until October 12, 2025, is this summer's highlight at the Dutch national museum, dedicated to architecture, design, and digital culture, promoting new ideas through exhibitions, research, and public programs. The exhibition represents MAD's first solo exhibition in the country and is presented as a collaboration between the studio and the Nieuwe Instituut.

The exhibition is curated by Aric Chen—the institute's managing and artistic director—along with Tijn van de Wijdeven and Emily Wijns. Founded in 2004 by Ma Yansong and currently directed by Dang Qun and Yosuke Hayano, MAD proposes an architecture that transcends functionality, focusing on emotions and the deep connection between people, nature, and the built environment.

Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion. Photograph by Demone.

“The exhibition approaches MAD’s practice from multiple perspectives—from critiques of modernism and globalization to explorations of its design language; from domestic living and art installations to large-scale cultural and commercial projects—bringing viewers closer to the ideas and working methods of Ma Yansong and MAD. Through spatial presentations of architectural models, art, and multimedia, visitors will experience how MAD uses architecture to evoke emotion and respond to the environment.”

Aric Chen, General and Artistic Director of the Nieuwe Instituut.

The exhibition is structured around seven chapters, each anchored by a defining moment in MAD’s architectural practice and research:

•    MAD in China
•    Absolute Towers
•    Shanshui City
•    Embodied Nature
•    Layered Futures
•    Connective Landscapes
•    MAD People

Through 27 architectural and artistic works, this exhibition explores the evolution of MAD Architects' philosophy, showcasing its conceptual intensity and boundless creativity.

“We hope this exhibition brings viewers closer to MAD and offers insight into our work. Through imagination, we’ve always sought to breathe new life and vitality into cities and architecture, encouraging people to re-examine their relationship with nature, time, and the world.”

Ma Yansong

Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion. Photograph by Demone.

The first chapter, MAD in China, presents its early experiments at the forefront of urban concepts, such as Fish Tank, Beijing 2050, and Superstar: A Mobile China Town, highlighting MAD's speculative and provocative beginnings.

Absolute Towers, the second chapter, centers on the iconic Canadian skyscrapers that marked MAD’s global breakthrough, making them the first Chinese studio to win a major international commission.

Shanshui City, the third chapter, delves into the firm’s guiding vision: blending the poetic spirit of traditional Chinese landscapes with contemporary architecture. Projects like Chaoyang Park Plaza and UNIC reinterpret nature in urban form.

Ma Yansong: Arquitectura y emoción. Fotografía por Arch Exist.

Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion. Photograph by Arch Exist.

Embodied Nature gathers works including the Cloudscape of Haikou and Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, illustrating MAD’s efforts to blur the lines between the natural and built environments.

In Layered Future, projects such as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and The Ark reflect the studio’s human-centered imagination across different cultural and urban settings. A WeChat-based animated timeline reveals their creative process.

Connective Landscapes features buildings like One River North and Baiziwan Social Housing, showing how MAD integrates community, infrastructure, and ecology in architectural design.

Ma Yansong: Arquitectura y emoción. Fotografía por Arch Exist.a

Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion. Photograph by Arch Exist.

The final chapter, MAD People, offers a video glimpse into the studio’s collaborative, cross-cultural environment.

Visitors can also engage with an interactive AR installation that turns hand-drawn sketches into volumetric designs—an invitation to imagine space through MAD’s visionary lens.

Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode.

Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion. Photograph by Arch Exist.

Plan. Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion.

View more images

Metalocus recommends

VHIR Vall d’Hebron Campus Research Center by BAAS + ESPINET/UBACH. Photograph by Gregori Civera

An urban fold. VHIR Research Center, Vall d'Hebron Campus, by BAAS + ESPINET/UBACH

Play Pavilion, designed by Peter Cook (Peter Cook Studio Crablab), in collaboration with Serpentine and the LEGO Group. Design render, aerial view. Photograph Peter Cook (Peter Cook Studio Crablab). Courtesy Serpentine

Back to childhood. Play Pavilion by Peter Cook

Casa Cometa by Bardo Arquitectura. Photograph by Germán Sáiz

Lightness in the form. Casa Cometa by Bardo Arquitectura

More information

Label

Exhibition

Text

Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion.

Label

Curators

Text

Curators.- Aric Chen, Tijn van de Wijdeven, Emily Wijns.
Assistant Curator.- Susanna Olmi.

Label

Spatial design and curatorial collaborators

Text

Spatial design and curatorial collaborators.- MAD.
Artistic Lead.- MA Yansong, DANG Qun, Yosuke HAYANO.

Label

Exhibition team

Text

Fiona Ql Ziying, SONG Jia, HUANG Juntao, Li Ran, JIANG Yunyao, Valentina OLIVIERI, HE Linxi, Tammy XIE Xiaozhang, LIU Danyang, WANG Manwei, ZHU Yuanlong.

Label

Collaborators

Text

Graphic Concept & Design.- Joris Kritis with / met Emil Kowalczyk
Head of Programme: Flora van Gaalen.
Production.- Thomas Tawanda Orbon, Christie Bakker.
Technical Production.- Peer Thielen.
Communications.- Moetoesingi Schmidt, Petra van der Ree, Robin van Essel, Jaap Stronks, Keesje Heldoorn, Jessica Dohmen-Verboom, Qi Lin Braat.
Technical Support.- Bart Smits, Stefan Prins, Robin Menheere, Richard Blokdijk, Joe Ziemba.
Co-learning.- Linde Dorenbosch, Pia Canales, Joëlle Hoogendoorn, Tony Santos.
Fundraising.- Jacob de Munnik, Saskia Derksen.
Art Direction Advisor.- Maureen Mooren.
Commissioned work.- Aimée Theriot i.c.w / m.m.v Federica Notari.
Copy editing.- Jane Szita, Alexandra Onderwater.
Dutch translation.- Floris Dogterom.
AI-developers.- Casper Wortmann & Thomas Groenewegen.
Exhibition construction.- Bouwko Landstra & team, Antje Verstrate.
Light Design.- 50LUX.
Graphic Production.- SWOON sign & visual.
Sponsors.- Stichting Droom en Daad, Van Leeuwen Van Lignac Stichting, Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot, Abe Bonnema Stichting, Elise Mathilde fonds.

Label

Dates

Text

May 17 - October 12, 2025.

Label

Location

Text

Nieuwe Instituut. Museumpark 25, 3015 EK Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Label

Photography

Text

Demone, Arch Exist, Ossip van Duivenbode.

MA YANSONG

Ma Yansong is a Beijing-born architect (1975) recognized as an important voice in a new generation of architects. He graduated from the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Ma attended Yale University after receiving the American Institute of Architects Scholarship for Advanced Architecture Research in 2001 and holds a master's degree in Architecture from Yale.

He shares his knowledge as an adjunct professor at the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Tsinghua University, and the University of Southern California. Ma Yansong's journey is a continuous narrative unfolding, exploring innovation and pushing the boundaries of what we perceive as the built environment.

Since the founding of MAD in 2004, his works in architecture and art have been widely published and exhibited. Ma Yansong was awarded the 2006 Architecture League Young Architects Award. In 2008 he was selected as one of the twenty most influential Young Architects today by ICON magazine and Fast Company named him one of the ten most creative people in architecture in 2009. In 2010 he became the first architect from China to receive a RIBA fellowship.

“I work with emotion and with the context. When I design a building, I close my eyes and feel as if I saw a virtual world which lays half way between the city, the nature and the land. It goes from large scale to small scale. Many things travel in front of my eyes; I feel them and try to find the way to express my feelings. The language I use is the least important of it all. It does not matter whether they are straight lines, curves... I only intend for people to feel the same or to find something unexpected” says Ma Yansong. “MAD is an attitude, a posture towards architecture, towards society. Through our work we want people to be inspired by a place through local nature, time and space”, he states.

Photograph by Daniel J.Allen

Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano. MAD

mad is a Beijing-based architecture design office dedicated to creating innovative projects. Founded by Ma Yansong in 2004, MAD Architects is led by Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, and Yosuke Hayano. It is committed to developing futuristic, organic, technologically advanced designs that embody a contemporary interpretation of the Eastern affinity for nature. With a vision for the city of the future based on the spiritual and emotional needs of residents, MAD endeavours to create a balance between humanity, the city, and the environment.

MAD's projects encompass urban planning, urban complexes, municipal buildings, museums, theatres, concert halls, and housing, as well as art and design. Their projects are located in China, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States. In 2006, MAD won the design competition for the Absolute Towers in Mississauga, Canada. Through this, MAD became the first Chinese architecture firm to build a significant high-rise project abroad. In 2014, MAD was selected as the principal designer for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, USA, becoming the first China-based architecture firm to design an overseas cultural landmark. MAD’s signature cultural projects include Ordos Museum (2011, China), Harbin Opera House (2015, China), Tunnel of Light (2018, Japan), China Philharmonic Concert Hall (under construction), Yiwu Grand Theater (under construction), FENIX Museum of Migration in Rotterdam (under construction), Cloudscape of Haikou (2021, China), and Shenzhen Bay Culture Square (under construction). Other urban projects include the Clover House kindergarten (2015, Japan), Chaoyang Park Plaza (2017, China), China Entrepreneur Forum Conference Centre (2021, China), Jiaxing Train Station (under construction), Quzhou Sports Campus (under construction), and Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center (under construction), among others.

While practising architecture, MAD documents and discusses its reflections on architecture, culture, and arts through publications, architectural exhibitions, as well as academic lectures and presentations. MAD’s publications include Mad Dinner, Bright City, MA YANSONG: From (Global) Modernity to (Local) Tradition, Shanshui City, and MAD X. MAD has organized and participated in several contemporary art and design exhibitions, including MAD X, a solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 2019; Shanshui City, at UCCA in 2014; Feelings are Facts, a spatial experience exhibition with artist Ólafur Eliasson at UCCA in 2010; and MAD in China, a solo exhibition at the Danish Architectural Center, Copenhagen in 2007. MAD has participated in significant exhibitions at several iterations of the Venice Architecture Biennale and Milan Design Week. MAD has also participated in exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Copenhagen), and MAXXI (Rome). An array of MAD’s architecture models have been acquired by the Centre Pompidou and M+ Museum (Hong Kong) as part of their permanent collections.

MAD has offices in Beijing (China), Jiaxing (China), Los Angeles (USA), and Rome (Italy).

Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano and Qun Dand.

Published on: June 14, 2025

Cite:

metalocus, SARA GENT

"Ma Yansong Solo Exhibition Opens at the Nieuwe Instituut" METALOCUS. Accessed

<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/ma-yansong-solo-exhibition-opens-nieuwe-instituut> ISSN 1139-6415