The Chinese Architect Who Is Bringing Nature Back Into Tall Buildings

Ma Yansong “says that the ‘machine age’ drive to build grid-shaped cities filled with cubic buildings that race each other into the sky — first in the West, and now in China — alienates people from the spirits of nature and from each other. Silo-like skyscrapers, he says, should give way to structures that emulate the forces and forms of nature — clouds, mountains, waves — in cities of the future.”