Qingyun Ma

Who is Qingyun Ma?

Qingyun Ma is a Chinese architect.

Born in Xi'an, China, Ma received a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in Architecture from Tsinghua University. He attended the Graduate School of Fine Art at the University of Pennsylvania, becoming the first Chinese citizen from New China to attend the University with a scholarship since Liang Sicheng, a Penn graduate in 1937. He went on to study architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. In New York, he worked for several years at the firm Kohn Pedersen Fox. Also he became close to Rem Koolhaas on the first Harvard Project on the City, which he organized resulting in the book The Great Leap Forward.

In 1996, Ma founded MADA s.p.a.m. The architectural firm has to date built over 1,204,000 square meters. In 2000, MADA s.p.a.m. formally established itself in Beijing, moving to Shanghai the following year. Included amongst MADA s.p.a.m's works are Qingpu Community Island in Shanghai, the Centennial TV and Radio Center in Xi'an, and Tianyi City Plaza in Ningbo.

Ma taught architecture in China at Shenzhen University, Tongji University, and Nanjing University; in Europe at the Berlage, the ETH, in Paris and in Germany; and in the United States at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University. In October 2006, Qingyun became the new Dean of the University of Southern California School of Architecture.