Tianjin book exhibition spotlights architect's illustrious career

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 book Kenzo Tange, in which he provided a panorama of the renowned architect’s masterworks and his academic thoughts.

“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.

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.