Meet Zhimin Ma | Landscape Designer & Visualization Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zhimin Ma and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zhimin, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
As a child, I developed a love for painting and drawing – what started as a simple hobby grown into a passion for art and design at my teenage years. Growing up in Shanghai, a city with abundant artistic energy and home to some of the world’s most inspiring design firms and projects, I was deeply influenced by the innovative works around me. These early experiences shaped my passion for art and design and encouraged me to study architecture in college.
During my time in school, I used to spend countless hours on my design. I still vividly remember the nights and nights in the studio alone, polishing my ideas and refining the details. While my work was never perfect, it was always deeply personal and unique. The satisfaction of bringing vague ideas to life, though most of the ideas still stayed conceptual, left a lasting impact on me. This “bittersweet” journey of crafting ideas into meaningful designs has been the driving force behind my commitment to a creative career. The blend of challenge and joy in every project I have been working on is making every moment of the journey worthwhile.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Landscape architecture is a challenging and multifaceted career that requires construction expertise and creativity. Balancing these two aspects has been one of the greatest challenges in my journey. With 80% of my daily work focused on construction, I’ve had to actively cultivate my creativity, often relying on self-motivation to keep my design intuition sharp. Through this, I’ve learned that I am my own greatest source of encouragement, continuously pushing myself to grow and learn as I produce.
This is when I started to pursue visualization design as a parallel endeavor to dive into more abstract conceptual ideas, both real and virtual. I was able to broaden my perspective beyond the practical.
Today, as I work on more local projects, I’ve developed a deep connection with California—its land, its people, its plants, its climate, and its unique character. I am so proud of my ability to help create beautiful concept visualizations of landscapes and bring them to life for people to enjoy the stunning nature.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
The Getty and the beaches – classic picks, and I will gladly admit they are my favorites! These spots perfectly combine art and nature, much like the essence of my work.
At the Getty, I’d spend hours exploring the art collections, the gardens and the architecture. Each visit brings new discoveries, and there’s always something fresh to appreciate. Or just taking the time to sit with a single piece of art feels almost meditative. Let go of all distractions to immerse myself in the emotion behind every stroke. It is a moment to connect with history and creativity.
Then, let’s go to the beach! There is nothing quite like feeling the ocean breeze, listening to the rhythm of the waves and calls of seagulls, and letting the sunlight and the wave flow make you feel of part of something bigger. It is pure joy feeling deeply connected to the beauty of nature.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would love to mention my teammate Yijia Xu. We have built up a strong relationship during our master’s study at UPenn. Together we worked on one of my favorite designs so far: crafting the landscape in an active steel factory. Together, we envisioned an ambitious future of next-generation clean steel production powered by a hydrogen-based system. The design process was challenging, with countless debates and iterations as we worked to bring our vision to life. I deeply admire her passion for design and her untiring pursuit of innovation. To this day, we continue to collaborate on landscape design, and I am truly grateful for her partnership.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zzzzmin_m

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhimin-ma-la/