MAD Architects wishes you a happy Chinese new year. 2015 Year of Sheep!

On Nov.20th, 2014, MAD Architects held its “2014 Travel Fellowship Presentation” in its Beijing office. The five finalists shared their stories of “architecture in travel” to over 60 audiences.

MAD releases the design concept of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The architectural concept explores the relationship between nature and the urban environment.

In his new book,“Shanshui City”, Ma Yansong talks about the origin and practice of his design philosophy, and his vision for the future of Chinese cities. The launch exhibition was held in Beijing Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) from Sep.27th to Oct.7th.

Ordos Museum designed by MAD architects is announced the winner of the WAN Metal in Architecture Award 2014. Influenced by Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, the Ordos Museum shields the interior from the physical extremities of the north while also protecting its cultural exhibits from the unknowable growth of the outside city.

Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of MAD Architects’ founding, Ma Yansong’s latest book, “Shanshui City” will receive an international release this October. An accompanying exhibition will be held at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) from September 27th to October 7th, during Beijing Design Week.

On Aug.5th, 2014, Ma Yansong shared his vision of “Shanshui City” to students and faculty members at the University of Melbourne. An exhibition is also held in the Wunderlich Gallery at the university from Jul.30th to Aug.15th showcasing some of MAD’s most influential projects, including the Ordos Museum and Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center.

Following a global search, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA) announced that Beijing-based MAD Architects has been selected as the principal designer for the LMNA site. MAD will work with architects from VOA Associates and Studio Gang to accomplish the vision for the museum.

The time has come again for this year’s MAD Travel Fellowship recipients to be announced. MAD founding principal Ma Yansong started the fellowship in 2009 to foster China’s architecture students in their growth to become the next generation of international architects.

Both an architecture model and a landscape installation, the exhibited artwork “Silhouette Shanshui” is inspired by MAD’s latest project ‘Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center’.

MAD Architects (MAD) presents its latest project, Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale held in Venice, Italy. The Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center is a city-scale urban project, with an overall building area of approximately 560,000 sqm.

As a recent realization of the concept “Shanshui City,” “Chaoyang Park Plaza” has begun construction. It marks another milestone in one of the practices of MAD’s design theory. This project pushes the boundary of the urbanization process in modern cosmopolitan life by creating a dialogue between artificial scenery and natural landscapes.

On April 10th and 12th, 2014, just before the opening of MAD’s LA office, Ma Yansong was invited by the Virginia Society AIA and Cal Poly’s LA Metro program at A+D Museum, Los Angeles, to speak about the designing with nature and architectural concept of Shanshui City.

Starting April 11th, MAD pieces “Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza”, “Absolute Towers”, and “Hutong Bubble” are put on exhibition for a period of one month in the Berlin Chinese Culture Center’s “Chinese Shanshui City Design Exhibition”.

11 March 2014 – The World Economic Forum named Ma Yansong, the founder of MAD Architects, a Young Global Leaders for the year of 2014. This year’s list includes 214 young leaders from 66 countries. Ma Yansong is the first Chinese architect for this honor.

Jan 30, CNN selects MAD work Harbin Cultural Center among “10 eye-popping new buildings in 2014”. The article praises the “curvy, organic structure” of the project, and describes the design’s aim to “join art and nature in an integrated environment.”

As we bid farewell to the year of the snake, we wholly welcome the year of Ma (the horse). On behalf of Ma Yansong, MAD’s partners, and the rest of the architects at MAD, thank you for supporting us all this way and witnessing our growth. We wish you all a happy Chinese New Year!

M+’s architecture collection will be showcased on January 10th in Hong Kong. It is the first of its kind in Asia, with collections dating back to the 1920s, and will have among them MAD architects’ Fish Tank, Beijing 2050, and Absolute Towers.

The winners of this year’s MAD Travel Fellowship shared their thoughts and experiences on their trip abroad with us at the MAD office in Beijing. The five gifted students met with Ma Yansong and MAD staff in a discussion on architecture, both contemporary and ancient.

December 6th, 2013, Shenzhen. Ma Yansong presented his work, “Shanshui Experiment Complex” in the Border Warehouse of BI-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture 2013 in Shenzhen.

Ma Yasong was invited as a key-note speaker by the director of Deutsches Architecture Museum (DAM), Mr. Peter Cachola Schmal to speak at DAM’s “International Highrise Night”, and to join the panel discussion about the future of highrise buildings.

On Nov 11, 2013, Ma Yansong was invited to give a lecture at the Berlage Institute, Rotterdam. In the lecture, Ma introduced MAD’s recent projects, and spoke on his ideas about future city development and his wish to combine the eastern philosophy with modern city construction.

On Nov 9th, invited by Kunsthaus Bregenz, Ma Yansong attended and spoke at the symposium The Seismographs of Architecture. Kunsthaus Bregenz was designed by Peter Zumthor at 1997. It was known as the best representative of Zumthor’s works.

On the 6th November 2013, Ma Yansong was invited to speak at PLÅT annual seminar in Oslo, introducing MAD’s projects and joining the discussion on the “Metals of Possibilities”.

As the only design team from China, MAD was selected to participate in the second stage of the New Moscow Financial Center Masterplan competition. This is Moscow’s largest city design project in recent years; 83 teams participated in the first stage competition. On the Nov 6th, the jury announced the list of 8 teams selected for the next round.