It is little surprise that Beijing-born architect Ma Yansong grew up fixated with science fiction. The soaring, curvilinear lines of his buildings – from the undulating Harbin Opera House in China to the suspended alien vessel-like Aranya Cloud Center, which is currently in construction in Qinhuangdao – look to have descended to Earth from a far-off realm.
‘Good buildings should feed people's imagination, provide them with pleasure and provoke some sort of spiritual reaction,’ Ma told Wallpaper* at the beginning of 2023. ‘I like to create a kind of surreal atmosphere with architecture that's a little strange, unfamiliar or abstract. If the built world is too practical, it feels flat, and there's no space for imagination.’
