MAD was founded, in Beijing, in 2004 by architect Ma Yansong. The agency designs organic and dreamlike architecture that evokes – one could say invokes – man’s spiritual and emotional connection with nature, the sky and the earth. An architecture of fiction, even anticipation, where nature and architecture merge.
In 2018, the Centre Pompidou (Mnam-Cci) acquired a set of models for its permanent collections representing the agency’s most significant projects from 2005 to the present day. On the occasion of the presentation of these works in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, MAD Architects edited MAD X 10 projects by MAD Architects with HYX Publishing.
This book, conceived and designed by Ma Yansong, offers a “journey” among the agency’s most significant projects, through photomontages, drawings, models and photographs. In particular, the following are presented: the agency’s first international project built in Canada, the “Absolute Towers” (2006-2012) – also known in Toronto as “Marilyn Monroe Towers”-; the “Harbin Opera House” (2010-2015) and the “Chaoyang Park Plaza” (2012-2017) in China; the “Clover House” (2012-2016) in Japan; the “Lucas Museum of Narrative Art” in the United States (2016-2021); and “UNIC”, the first project, carried out in France, to be delivered in Paris in 2019. A contribution by Frédéric Migayrou allows us to discover and put into perspective the aesthetic and philosophical challenges of this naturalized architecture. A portrait of Ma Yansong by Frédéric Edelmann introduces the projects presented.
If the Roman numeral “X” symbolizes the agency’s ten emblematic projects, it also has a completely different meaning for Ma Yansong: the unknown and a passion for exploring new territories. How can we imagine the city of the future? In its work, MAD Architects strives to create a balance between human beings, the city and the environment, with particular attention to the spiritual and emotional needs of the inhabitants, their connection with nature.
Buy Here: Editions HYX Amazon
Softcover | : | 160 pages |
Publisher | : | HYX Publishing (April 9, 2019) |
Language(s) | : | English, French |
ISBN | : | 978-2-37382-016-4 |
Illustrations | : | B&W, with four colour images |
Dimensions | : | 10 × 250 × 350 mm |