Archinect - News

MAD Architects creates Milan Design Week pavilion inspired by mountains

2024-04-18T12:17:00-04:00

MAD Architects has completed its latest installation for Milan Design Week. Titled ‘Amazing Walk.’ the project marks the seventh time MAD has participated in the event.

Image credit: Moreno Maggi

Set within the Cortile della Farmacia courtyard at the University of Milan, the ‘Amazing Walk’ seeks to “blur the boundary between built and natural environments in a surreal way.” Standing 24.6 feet tall, the internal column-free piece is formed of hundreds of triangular elements configured to reflect “the shape of mountains.”

Image credit: Moreno Maggi

The installation is constructed from an aluminum alloy covered in a semi-permeable composite membrane. The resulting finish offers varying visuals under different lighting conditions while, during the night, lights and mist blur the edges of the materials to give the illusion that the pavilion is floating.

Image credit: Moreno Maggi

“This open design invites explorat...

Foster + Partners replaces MAD on Hollywood office tower design

2024-03-20T18:59:00-04:00

Foster + Partners has been revealed as the architects of a replacement design that will take the place of the previous MAD Architects-produced The Star scheme at 6061 W Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

The newly proposed $1 billion "vertical creative office" is meant as an office for tenants in Hollywood's creative content industries.

Renderings for the replacement design showcase a high-rise structure with 360-degree views provided by its cylindrical form and punctured by a diagonal schism that contains biophilic elements and gathering spaces ribboning around the building's volume in three bands. A rooftop restaurant culminates the design at its uppermost floor.

Rendering courtesy Foster + Partners

The new proposal demarcates considerably from the original $500 million MAD design, which called for 22 stories of vertical gardens to be contained by a glass canopy. The rest of the program includes a ground-level LED video screen, an "arched paseo of restaurants," community gathering sp...

Facade installation underway on MAD Architects’ first North American residential rental tower

2024-03-06T15:38:00-05:00

Construction is progressing at Denver’s One River North, designed by MAD Architects.

The sixteen-story tower broke ground in late 2021 and represents MAD’s first residential rental building in the United States, expected to contain 187 units.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by One River North (@onerivernorth)

The scheme’s defining exterior element is a sharp carved opening midway up the tower, cutting through the upper section of the tower towards the roof. The opening will contain a network of footpaths and planting. A rooftop pool, spa, and garden areas complete the 216-foot-tall structure.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by One River North (@onerivernorth)

“If we regard modern cities as man-made landscapes on the earth, we need to design canyons, woods, creeks, and waterfalls, transforming concrete forests into second nature,” MAD founder Ma Yansong said about the development in 2021.

View this post on Instagram ...

MAD Architects completes ‘train station in the forest’ in China

2024-02-07T13:38:00-05:00

MAD Architects has completed their overhaul of the Jiaxing Train Station in China, described by the firm as a “train station in the forest.” Located in the city of Jiaxing, 60 miles southwest of Shanghai, the project included the replacement of an outdated train station that occupied the site from 1995 to 2019.

Image credit: Lu Bing

Image credit: AC

MAD’s approach saw the full-scale recreation of an original 1907 station that stood on the site alongside a “floating” metal roof above an expanded site. In order to reconstruct the old station, the firm collaborated with architectural experts and scholars to analyze a large amount of historical data, with the 210,000 red and green bricks used to construct the station made of mud sourced from the nearby South Lake.

Image credit: CreatAR Images

Image credit: AC

Surrounding the reconstructed station, MAD sought to create a complex “more humane and efficient than its predecessor.” The interior of the new hub maintains a dialogue with the recrea...

MAD designs Chinese waterfront arts center as a ‘gentle ripple by the lake’

2024-01-04T11:35:00-05:00

MAD Architects has designed a waterfront arts center in China’s Foshan City described as a “gentle ripple by the lake.” When completed in 2029, the Nanhai Art Center will cover an area of 640,000 square feet, housing a grand theater, a museum, and a sports center.

Image credit: MAD Architects

The scheme has been conceived as a “continuous wave of water,” with the three main buildings sitting underneath a floating canopy comprised of a white, translucent ETFE membrane. The resulting blurring of outdoor and indoor spaces seeks to emphasize the prominence of the nearby lake in the scheme, encouraging the local community to embrace the waterfront as a part of the scheme’s cultural function.

Image credit: MAD Architects

“The traditional culture of Nanhai is in the drum beat and boat drift during the dragon festival boat race and in the kung-fu in the lion dance,” MAD founder Ma Yansong about the site’s context. “Watching them, you can feel the dynamic vibrant, and innovative spirit from an...

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art begins exterior finishes ahead of 2025 debut

2023-11-22T18:21:00-05:00

The finish line for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art may still be out on the horizon, but the exterior of the $1-billion project from Star Wars and Indiana Jones creator George Lucas is starting to take shape.

The blog Urbanize LA has some nice construction photos of the inbound Lucas Museum of Narrative Art project that’s set to culminate in 2025 in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park. Progress since our last update seems to have advanced on the roof of the 300,000-square-foot structure, where a photovoltaic array, a new green roof, and other exterior finishes are being installed.

The $1 billion design from MAD Architects was announced to have been delayed again in September of last year over supply chain problems. Once it opens, it will feature four stories and a total 300,000-square-feet of floor area with multiple exhibition spaces, a library, two theaters, and landscape program designed by Studio-MLA.

"We’re building an institution, a 200-plus-year proposition," Director Sandra Jackson-Dumont had said previously. "And we’re doing it amidst the most uncertain moments in our time.”

MAD to renovate Shanghai cement warehouse with floating metal ‘ark’

2023-10-27T11:33:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled its design for the renovation and adaptive reuse of an old cement factory in Shanghai. The ‘Wanmicang’ warehouse sits on the south side of the Shanghai Zhangjiang Cement Factory grounds and has been reimagined by MAD as a “three-dimensional hierarchy of time and physical dimensions through the juxtaposition of old and new structures.”

Image credit: MAD Architects

Having ceased production in 2013 after decades as one of Shanghai’s largest cement factories, the site has been the subject of several commissions by architects aiming to preserve and reuse historical buildings while repositioning the site for research, cultural, commercial, and creative uses. Subsequently, MAD’s approach to the Wanmicang warehouse was to preserve the site’s industrial fabric while repurposing the site as a multifunctional public waterfront space holding culture, creativity, commercial, and office functions.

Image credit: MAD Architects

“Industrial heritage is preserved and utilize...

MAD Architects' LA office seeks Head of PR to oversee growing international projects

2023-10-25T17:54:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opportunity for the next Howard E. LeFevre ‘29 Emerging Practitioner Fellowship, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Head of PR (International & US) at MAD Architects.

The role, based in Los Angeles with remote possible, calls for an individual to lead press, media, and editorial campaigns in order to increase MAD’s online presence and "represent the firm’s branding and voice." Among the requirements for the role are a Bachelor’s degree in architecture, communications, or a related field, as well as a "proven track record for delivering online growth and engagement" for media outlets and social media.

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art by MAD Architects. Image taken in August 2022. Image credit: Ron Raffety via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Why the role interests us

The open role at MAD offers us a chance to review some of the recent international projects outside of the firm’s native China...

MAD designs culture and arts center in China inspired by mountainous tea fields

2023-09-15T11:55:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled their design for the Anji Culture and Art Center near Shanghai, China. Set in a region containing a United Nations Habitat Award, the project is envisioned as a “transitional connecting space between the natural and built environments of the region,” including a city, river, and mountains.

Image credit: MAD Architects

Covering an area of 1.6 million square feet with a construction area of 1.3 million square feet, the center is composed of six venues: a Grand Theater, Conference Center, Leisure Center, Sports Center, Youth Activity Center, and Art Education Center. The venues are spread out beneath the center’s “bamboo leaves roof” and are surrounded by the region’s unique green tea fields.

Image credit: MAD Architects

MAD describes the center as a “porous meeting space that will be accessible to the public from all directions and at all times of day.” Arranged along an axis, the center’s central corrid...

Photos of MAD Architects' artistic nexus, The City of Time

2023-06-28T17:15:00-04:00

MAD Architects has shared new images of its recently completed temporary The City of Time installation for the Aranya Theater Festival in China.

The project, which ran from June 12th to June 25th in the seaside resort community, brought together 300 artists and 131 group works under one maze-like design that dissolved after standing on the beach for a period of 300 hours.

Image courtesy Aranya Theater Festival

Using verse and meter, the firm described its intentions for the installation as follows:

The City of Time,
Dissolves after 300 hours.
Revolving around an axis perpendicular to the sea,
It offers a spiritual roost for creators.

In real cities,
The need for functionality suffocates spiritual spaces.
Building a fanciful city by the sea,
Allows the substance of theatre and art,
To breathe natural life into this space.

Taking flight and transcending reality,
It is a place dedicated to time, human behavior, and nature,
Inspiring contemplation on our relationships with ourselves and the wor...

MAD Architects' new China Philharmonic Concert Hall project nears completion in Beijing

2023-06-13T13:47:00-04:00

MAD Architects has shared an update on its nearly-complete China Philharmonic Concert Hall in Beijing.

The project encompasses almost 280,000 square feet of total building area and features an organic two-story volume sheathed in a translucent membrane-like facade the firm says is reminiscent of a piece of jade, a gemstone that has, for millennia, played a significant role in Chinese ethnography.

Photo by CreatAR

Located next to the 64-year-old Workers’ Stadium Complex, the 1,600-seat venue includes a 350-seat rehearsal space and was developed alongside world-renowned acoustics expert Yasuhisa Toyota to serve as the new home of the equally well-regarded China Philharmonic Orchestra.

Rendering courtesy MAD Architects

Nestled in its interior, a sloping “vineyard style” serried seating arrangement defines the concert space that also takes advantage of the influx of natural light provided by the structure’s unique façade system.

Photo by Zhengdong Li

Concertgoers can take in their performa...

MAD Architects unveils plans for Quito’s tallest tower as their first South American project

2023-05-02T10:53:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled their first project in South America with the Qondesa tower in Quito, Ecuador. When completed, the mixed-use residential and commercial building is set to be the tallest in the city.

Image credit: Mir

According to the design team, the scheme is inspired by its natural surroundings, with an architectural form “growing from the earth to the sky.” The external twisting facade seeks to emulate twisting vines coming to a taper at the top. The building’s form was also shaped so as to avoid blocking natural light and views from surrounding buildings.

Image credit: Plomp

“Quito, a city of coexisting contrasts influenced by its diverse ecosystems, ethnicities, and traditions, is the capital of Ecuador and a UNESCO world heritage site, which features the best-preserved and least altered historic center in South America,” MAD said about the scheme in a statement. “Soon to be Quito’s tallest building, MAD aspires to offer a design solution for integrating nature into h...

MAD details new MOMENTUM installation for Milan Design Week 2023

2023-04-17T14:02:00-04:00

The lead-up to this year's Milan Design Week festival will include a new installation from Ma Yansong and Andrea D’Antrassi of MAD Architects as part of the INTERNI Design Re-Evolution exhibition held at the University of Milan.

Titled MOMENTUM, the 8-by-12.5-meter iron cube structure is tilted 45 degrees from its base and is being commissioned by AXA IM Alts for the duration of the fair. During the day, its ETFE polymer surface will reflect its surroundings while at night, the installation becomes more transparent as it yields to the artificial light source before becoming “the moment, a dialogue between thought and evolution that’s both pure and disarming.”

MAD says its presence “represents the moment when a new awareness is born, when the creative process begins.”

Image courtesy MAD Architects

“At a time when everything is immediate, and everything can be replicated digitally, MOMENTUM is, on the one hand, the spark, the original idea; on the other, it is the study, complexity an...

MAD's Ma Yansong occupies abandoned Chinese market with colorful, reflective art installation

2023-03-20T10:59:00-04:00

Architect and MAD founder Ma Yansong has completed an art installation set within an abandoned market in China’s Guangdong province. Titled 'Timeless Beacon,' the project sees the three-story structure wrapped in reflective film and topped with a colorful cloth covering.

Image credit: Lu Yu

Located in the village of Taiping Xu, the installation occupies the former Taiping market, the village’s largest abandoned building. Once a bustling trading fair for fishermen, businesspeople, and villagers, dating back to the late Ming Dynasty, the market became abandoned in the 1980s as a younger generation moved from the village towards larger cities and online commerce lessened the need for physical marketplaces.

Image credit: Tian Fangfang

“I see many plants growing towards the sun from the gaps of the abandoned building,” explained Ma Yansong in a statement. “We hope to create a sense of vitality and rebirth from the ruins so that people can feel new energy and perception from the old structu...

The billion dollar Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is finally on course towards completion

2023-03-17T09:10:00-04:00

But even in the haze of construction, a seemingly endless swirl of workers, cranes and girders, the enormous scope of the project is coming into focus as its futuristic new home rises in Exposition Park: a grand homage to one of the nation’s best-known filmmakers, and a massive repository for an eclectic collection of 100,000 paintings, photographs, book illustrations and comic book drawings.

Following a series of legal issues, criticism, construction delays, and the pandemic, the long-awaited MAD Architects-designed $1 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art finally seems to be on track to complete.

Since breaking ground in 2018, the project’s opening has been pushed back twice to 2023 and then 2025. Aside from external setbacks, the project’s slowed progress can be attributed to its complex and ambitious design.

Previously on Archinect: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening date pushed back again to 2025 due to supply chain issues

As noted by The New York Times, the museum includes over 1,500 individually fabricated curved panels of fiberglass-reinforced polymer, three curved-glass elevators, an elliptical oculus, a rooftop garden, and two 299-seat theaters atop 281 seismic base isolators.

With the five-story, 300,000-square-foot museum, akin to a "low-lying spaceship," set to become a reality, the focus has shifted towards whether this site can draw the attendance tha...

MAD Architects unveils design of new dance center in Rotterdam

2023-03-10T08:00:00-05:00

MAD Architects has revealed the design of Danshuis, a world-class dance center built from a former riverfront warehouse in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It will feature professional dance studios, theaters, and exhibition spaces for dancers from around the world.

Image: Proloog

MAD Architects was commissioned by philanthropic investor Droom en Daad Foundation. The Rotterdam-based organization aims to make the city a world leader through art and culture. Sitting along the south bank of the Mas River Rotterdam, the Danshuis will echo the adjacent Fenix Museum of Migration, MAD’s first European cultural project.

Image: Proloog

For Danshuis, the architects preserved the original warehouse structure while introducing a number of components that express the project’s aim to be a symbol for freedom and pluralism. This is evident through an open-air, semi-circular theater that refers to ancient Greek gathering spaces located in the middle area of the top floor. This performance space will be o...

MAD’s fan-shaped airport in Changchun, China is imagined as a ‘floating feather’

2023-02-07T10:53:00-05:00

MAD Architects has been named the winner of an international competition for the design of the Changchun “Longjia” International Airport Terminal 3 in Jilin Province, China. The 2.9 million square foot terminal will contain 54 aircraft gates and is expected to accommodate 22 million annual passengers when operational.

Image credit: MAD Architects

The fan-shaped airport is imagined by its designers as a “floating feather,” reflecting the movement of airplanes ascending and descending from the terminal throughout the day. The airport’s setting among forests, lakes, and undulating terrain are also echoed on the interior, with an indoor garden system combining trees and water features.

Image credit: MAD Architects

Natural light is brought into the departure hall through the feather-shaped roof to create a “bright and warm” interior space. The dominant lines of the roof’s ribbed structure are also expressed on the timber ceiling in an effort to naturally guide the flow of passengers toward...

MAD Architects' newly-completed Quzhou Sports Park hovers over the Zhejiang Province in China

2022-10-06T14:12:00-04:00

MAD Architects has shared photos of their newly-completed signature stadium that’s part of the Quzhou Sports Park in Zhejiang, China.

In our April 2020 coverage of the project, construction of the mega development was underway. At that time, image renders showcased a massive urban park promising the "façade disappears into the terrain, covered by greenery so that it becomes the landscape itself." Two years later, the development's 700,000-square-meter (7.5-million-square-foot) centerpiece emerges.

Aerial view of Quzhou Stadium. Image © CreatAR Images. Courtesy of MAD Architects.

Image © CreatAR Images. Courtesy of MAD Architects.

The massive 30,000-seat sports venue is considered to be one of the world’s largest "earth-sheltered buildings." Located within the historic city of Quzhou, 258.6 miles (400 kilometers) southwest of Shanghai, the stadium's exterior is said to "reflect the mountain ridge within distant view of the site while its landscape evokes those of planets imagined by vi...

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening date pushed back again to 2025 due to supply chain issues

2022-09-22T12:13:00-04:00

The opening of MAD’s highly-anticipated Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has been delayed until the year 2025 over apparent issues in the construction supply chain, according to a report published yesterday in the LA Times.

In an interview with the paper, the museum’s director Sandra Jackson-Dumont indicated that, while construction was still moving forward “in all areas,” an inability to obtain the necessary geofoam filling elements, light fixtures, and elevator components has coupled with existing on-site safety-related delays to bump its debut again by another two years.

The museum’s opening had already been pushed back due to Covid-19 protocols after first breaking ground in 2018.

Previously on Archinect: Delays push back opening of the MAD-designed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

As ARTNews reported, this is a problem that has also affected the OMA-led expansion of Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Gallery and the $60 million overhaul of the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT. Supply chain issues ...

MAD's new Aranya 'Cloud Center' is floating into place in coastal China

2022-09-01T14:45:00-04:00

MAD Architects has shared new images and project details of its upcoming multipurpose Aranya "Cloud Center" in the port city of Qinhuangdao, China.

The firm says it is nearly complete with the construction phase that was begun in March 2021 in the coastal area roughly 160 miles east of Beijing.

Featuring a floating cloud-like grand hall, column-free gallery space, and theater, the 2,579-square-meter (27,760-square-foot) facility will serve as the centerpiece of a growing artistic community, attempting to blur the boundary between architecture and nature in a smart update to founder Ma Yansong’s well-established approach to the design of intimate spatial experiences.

Photo: Zhu Yumeng. Image courtesy MAD Architects

Photo: CreatAR. Image courtesy MAD Architects

Per the firm: "The Cloud Center is designated to have a singular architecture becoming the component to a larger context. With a reflective pond, a garden, and surrounding woods, the entirety forms a peaceful dreamscape envisi...

MAD's latest project, MoLo, will serve as the gateway to Milan's burgeoning Innovation District

2022-08-03T19:20:00-04:00

Fresh off the firm’s debut public housing effort in Beijing, MAD Architects has unveiled project renders for a commercial complex at the edge of Milan’s Innovation District called MoLo (short for Mobility and Logistics Hub). According to the firm, the new hub will serve as a “monumental gateway” to the city’s burgeoning high-tech economic zone.

The design for MoLo includes a five-story car park, said to be the hub's "centerpiece." Amplifying their focus and commitment to sustainability, the complex will house 8,000 square meters (or 86,111 square feet) of photovoltaic panels atop a two-story commercial center. The team from MAD shares, "The MoLo was designed to perform as a welcoming entrance and education space for issues related to mobility in which visitors can drop off their cars to explore the district on foot and see innovative transportation technology in person."

Image render courtesy of MAD.

Continuing with their focus on nature-centered designs, as seen in the studio’s Gard...

MAD's first Beijing housing development is a treatise on 'The Sociality of Social Housing'

2022-06-21T13:19:00-04:00

Embarking on a new project type for the first time in the history of the practice, Ma Yansong’s MAD Architects recently unveiled photos for a social housing scheme located near Beijing’s central business district called Baiziwan.

It is promoted to include some 4000 new housing units distributed through a program of 6 blocks and 12 buildings equaling a massive total construction area of 473,300 square meters (about 5.1-million-square-feet). The project’s brief asked for an eco-friendly scheme that would connect the site with the pedestrian life of the city at street level, and MAD responded with a plan anchored by a central commercial artery and connected via a blood-red walkway to a circuit of semi-open "gray" spaces, a nature sanctuary, amphitheater, and elevated park planners conceive of as a “Floating Garden.”

Two of the structures were constructed using the international passive house standard as well. In a press statement, MAD also said space ...

MAD Architects wins competition to design Chongqing Cuntan International Cruise Centre

2022-01-13T14:30:00-05:00

MAD Architects, in collaboration with the China Academy of Building Research (CASR), have won an international competition for the design of the Cuntan International Cruise Centre in Chongqing, China. The project will see the transformation of a cargo terminal into a cruise terminal and city complex.

The project site is currently a 66,000-square-meter cargo terminal located in Chongqing’s Liangjiang New Area. With access to the Yangtze River, MAD Architects’ scheme will see the development of a 65,000-square-meter international cruise terminal and city complex, comprising a 15,000-square-meter cruise port and 50,000 square meters of commercial space.

According to MAD’s press release, the design team was inspired by the large orange gantry cranes that filled the freight terminal. ”These gantry cranes became living alien creatures that gave a sense of surrealism,” said MAD Architects Founder and Principal Partner Ma Yansong. “The new scheme is therefore not only about reflecting the ...

MAD Architects breaks ground on its ripped-open first North American residential rental project

2021-11-09T13:18:00-05:00

Continuing with their recent expansion into the United States, MAD has officially broken ground on a new residential development in Denver called One River North.

Courtesy Colorado Drone Images

The Beijing and Los Angeles-based firm is looking to cement its footprint in North America with a sixteen-story tower for one of Denver’s most vibrant neighborhoods. Located in the River North Art District (RiNo) just above Coors Field and the city’s downtown business center, the new development will feature187 residential units carved into a sculptural, curvilinear tower with a jagged open chasm and four hikeable footpaths, providing users with an unencumbered view of the majestic Rocky Mountains from which its shape takes inspiration.

Courtesy One River North

A rooftop pool, spa, and garden areas complete the 216-foot-tall structure with a water feature to further enhance the deliberate sense of connection between residents and the natural world created by Ma Yansong’s design team.

Courtesy O...

MAD Architects proposes a tree-filled 'office of the future' in the heart of Hollywood

2021-09-16T15:43:00-04:00

LA's Hollywood neighborhood is undergoing a massive transformation with new developments popping up everywhere. MAD Architects just introduced another $500 million design proposal to the mix which is guaranteed to stand out from the sea of often unbearably bland new buildings.

Located at 6061 Sunset Boulevard, only a few blocks away from Netflix' new Hollywood office campus, the planned office tower, dubbed 'The Star,' intrigues with an unusual shape we would expect from the team at MAD and features landscaped gardens and terraces integrated throughout its 22 floors.

A short video rendering released this week reveals a textured glass facade and external elevator pods sliding up and down the building's spines.

Video courtesy MAD Architects

"Hollywood has been a signature center for culture and creativity for a long time," Ma Yansong, MAD's founding principal, shared. "The Star will be the new iconic landmark in Hollywood and continue to nurture the public's inspiration and creativi...

MAD unveils plans for the new Aranya 'Cloud Center'

2021-07-06T17:43:00-04:00

A new multipurpose development is taking shape in Qinhuangdao, China, bringing a “floating cloud by the sea” thanks to a plan by MAD, unveiled this week, that will add 2,500 square meters of swirling new public space to the city’s coastal community of Aranya.

Having already broken ground in March, residents of the region will soon enjoy a new center for conferences, performances, and more housed in a flexible columnless interior space complete with a theater space wrapped in a unique white stained glass facade.

Image courtesy MAD Architects

Viewed from above, the project’s footprint takes on a futuristic shape thanks to a white boundary wall and undulated landscape with painted rocks meant to resemble interstellar constellations. From the ground, a more atmospheric feel finally takes full form, with an articulated cloud-like structure sitting atop a circular glazed core that adds a floating quality to visitors who enter the space’s foyer through a long re...

Two new installations by Ma Yansong reflect MAD Architect's diverse artistic practice

2021-06-07T16:10:00-04:00

MAD Architects founder Ma Yansong has unveiled two new art installations across China for the summer. Together, they reinforce the firm’s multifaceted portfolio and approach to art and design.

"Light". Photo: Tian Fangfang

As part of “Art at Fuliang 2021”, an art festival in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen, Yansong presents “Light”. The festival aims to highlight the character and charm of Hanxi Village in Fuliang County. The region is defined by its porcelain industry, abundant water, and vast tea fields, which have shaped its landscape.

"Light". Photo: Tian Fangfang

“Light” appears to gently float above rolling tea fields. It is meant to be a medium for connecting to nature as it responds and adapts to changing settings. The piece can appear like a cloud in light and darkness, become translucent, glow, or meld with passing fog.

“Forma Fantasia” at Nine-Tiered Pagoda – Spatial and Visual Magic. Photo: MAD Architects

The second work was an exhibition design for “Forma Fantasia”, an i...

MAD's proposal for a new cultural center in Zhuhai is unveiled showcasing a conservationist approach to Urban Development

2021-05-21T21:27:00-04:00

Plans for a proposed cultural center in China’s southern Guangdong region have been released as MAD becomes the latest to enter its name in a competition for an urban renewal project that is equal parts conservation and inspiration, leaving intact the historic past while keeping an eye on the region’s glittering future.

Dominated by a massive floating dome, the studio’s vision for a new cultural arts center covers a centuries-old coastal village located on a peninsula on the northern tip of Zhuhai, the country’s most livable city.

Zhuhai Cultural Arts Center model, by MAD Architects

The dome’s structure is comprised of a cable membrane layered over the village’s former plaza and a plethora of scattered small-scale buildings meant to preserve some of the original charm lost to the massive development boom that followed its designation as a Special Economic Zone in 1980.

Urban renewal in China, especially in historic districts, should be preserved, revived, and re-created, instead of ...

MAD Architects unveils design for sinuous, multi-use civic center

2021-05-11T19:28:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled its design for the Jiaxing Civic Center. Led by Ma Yansong, this is the firm’s latest major public project in Jiaxing since the unveiling of the Jiaxing Train Station earlier this year.

The Jiaxing Civic Center is situated along the city’s central axis, taking advantage of the river views and the lush vegetation that surrounds the area. The project has a significant position, sitting adjacent to the South Lake, a historic lake in the South of Jiaxing, and the Central Park, the largest park in the city. Spanning nearly 130,000 square meters, the site contains three venues: the Science and Technology Museum, the Women and Children Activity Center, and the Youth Activity Center.

Image: MAD Architects

For this project, MAD Architects has envisioned an artistic entity on an urban scale, where architectural forms and landscapes coalesce. The civic center is at once open and intimate. With its large circular lawn as the centerpiece, both people and the building...

Delays push back opening of the MAD-designed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

2021-04-05T16:55:00-04:00

Due to pandemic-related delays, the highly anticipated Lucas Museum will open its doors to the public in 2023. Construction began in March 2018, yet health and safety protocols relating to the Covid-19 pandemic have pushed back the Museum's opening. Renders of the $1-billion Museum and its steel structure designed by Ma Yansong, founder of Beijing- and LA-based MAD Architects, have already made its media rounds since the design was unveiled back in 2017.

Rendering courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

Los Angeles Time's staff writer Deborah Vankin reports that while the Museum's opening has been pushed, they're working on museum interiors build-outs (two theatres and gallery space), transporting and installing exhibition assets, and the site's landscape design spearheaded by LA-based landscape architecture and urban planning firm Studio-MLA. The Museum also celebrates the addition of Judith F. Baca's "The Great Wall of Los Angeles." The acquiring of Baca's iconic mural slates h...