Ma Guoxin: My Design Career — Books on Architectural Culture, is on view at the Tianjin University Library until April 25, 2024. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

    A leader in modern China’s architectural design, Ma Guoxin, 82, has created a body of work ranging from monumental buildings like the Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall to imposing sports venues like the National Olympic Sports Center, as well as large-scale transport hubs like Terminal 2 of the Beijing Capital International Airport. All of these projects have played a significant role in national life over the last few decades.

    Ma Guoxin: My Design Career — Books on Architectural Culture, a recently opened exhibition at the Tianjin University Library, chronicles Ma’s illustrious career in architectural design and shines a spotlight on his achievements as an author and editor of books promoting architecture.

    Born in Jinan in 1942, Ma studied architecture at Tsinghua University. Upon his graduation in 1965, he joined the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD), located on the Nanlishi Road in Beijing’s Xicheng district, where he began building his fruitful career that spanned more than half of a century. In 1997, he was named as an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), the highest academic title officially recognized by the Chinese government in engineering and technological sciences.

    The exhibition’s first clue is guided byMemories of Nanlishi Road: My Design Career, a memoir by Ma published in September 2023, according to Jin Weixin, curator of the show and a researcher with the committee on 20th-century architectural heritage affiliated with the Chinese Cultural Relics Society.

    Ma Guoxin gives guests a guided tour of the book exhibition at the Tianjin University Library on March 20, 2024. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

    Following this clue, visitors can learn through pictures, texts, manuscripts and objects about the iconic aspects of Ma’s design career, including his foray into architectural design, his three-year study under Japanese architect and Pritzker Prize winner Kenzo Tange in the 1980s, his recollection of designing his representative works, and his involvement in designing sports venues in Beijing for the city to host the 11th Asian Games in 1990 and two Olympic Games in 2008 and 2022.

    Ma Guoxin in front of the built Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall in 1977 [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

    The show’s second clue highlights Ma’s other professions as a writer and editor, which are lesser known to the public than his tiles as the chief architect of BIAD and a CAE academician.

    On view are 35 books in eight categories including monographs and essays on architecture, photography albums, and poetry collections that Ma has penned or compiled since 1989 when he published his first bookKenzo Tange, in which he provided a panorama of the renowned architect’s masterworks and his academic thoughts.

    A page from the manuscript of Ma Guoxin’s first book Kenzo Tange [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

    “The exhibition showcases the academician is not only an architect who has helmed architectural projects of national significance, but also a prolific writer and editor,” said the curator. “In addition, he is a painter, calligrapher and engraver with his own style; a poet excelling in composing seven-character quatrains; and a globe-trotting photographer,” she added.

    Dozens of established architects including several CAE academicians–Wang Jianguo, Cui Kai, and Zhuang Weimin–attended the exhibition’s opening ceremony and gave speeches. They hailed Ma for his extraordinary ability to integrate science and art in architecture, his industrious attitude to work and learning, and his lifelong enthusiasm for architecture and art.

    Ma Guoxin’s drawing of the National Olympic Sports Center [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

    The exhibition runs until April 25. It was co-organized by the publicity department of Tianjin University, Beijing Institute of Architectural Design Co., Ltd, the committee on 20th-century architectural heritage affiliated with the Chinese Cultural Relics Society, Tianjin University Press and Tianjin University Library.

    Ma Guoxin received the IAKS Award, an international architecture prize for sustainable, accessible, and innovative sports and leisure facilities, for his design of the National Olympic Sports Center  in December 1993. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

    Ma Guoxin’s draft for Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

    Ma Guoxin’s rendering of the Central Business District of Abuja while he worked and researched at Tange Associates in 1981 [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

    An undated photo shows Ma Guoxin in the middle of engraving a seal [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]