At the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Ma Yansong and MAD Architects introduce City of Plants — a living metaphor for the future of urban design. Set within the Biennale’s central theme, “Intelligens: Natural. Artificial.”, the installation questions what intelligence means in the age of synthetic cities, where technology and nature are no longer separate but symbiotic.
City of Plants reimagines the city as a breathing organism. Instead of concrete grids and mechanical order, Ma envisions an ecosystem that grows, adapts, and responds — much like a forest. The installation unfolds as an architectural garden, where vegetation and structure intertwine, dissolving the usual distinction between the built and the biological. It is not simply a vision of sustainability but of sensitivity — a design philosophy that learns from nature rather than dominates it.
For Ma Yansong, this project continues his long-standing “Shanshui City” concept — the idea that architecture should evoke the emotional and spiritual resonance of natural landscapes. “Our cities should grow like forests,” he notes, “rooted in the intelligence of nature.” In City of Plants, intelligence is not just computational or digital. It is ecological — an awareness of balance, coexistence, and renewal.
The work speaks directly to the Biennale’s curatorial premise: that intelligence cannot be confined to human reasoning or artificial systems. Nature’s own logic — the way plants adapt, communicate, and regenerate — becomes a new model for urban intelligence. Through this lens, the city is no longer a product of human ego but a collective organism, animated by natural and artificial minds in conversation.
The installation’s material presence reinforces this dialogue. Organic forms rise like stems from the earth, intertwining with digital light and sound that pulse in response to movement. The experience is immersive yet meditative — an urban forest that listens and reacts. Visitors don’t simply observe architecture; they inhabit its metabolism.
In an era defined by environmental precarity and digital acceleration, City of Plants offers an alternative blueprint. It imagines cities that think in green, that sense, adapt, and breathe. In doing so, Ma Yansong and MAD Architects extend the meaning of intelligence — from artificial calculation to living cognition — urging us to rethink what a smart city could truly be.
Because the smartest cities, City of Plants suggests, might be the ones that behave like nature itself.
