MAD Architects: The Latest Architecture and News

Located in the largest remaining park in Beijing’s central business district, MAD Architects’ Chaoyang Park Plaza opened earlier this to year to much deserved fanfare. With a striking black glass form inspired by traditional Chinese ink landscape paintings, the complex is an immediate standout within its context.

In this photo series, Laurian Ghinitiou captures the series of buildings, drawing attention to their relationships to those surroundings. From the bustling streetscape, to the local residents fishing in the nearby pond, to KPF’s fast-rising CITIC Tower in the distance (soon to become Beijing’s tallest tower), Ghinitiou’s photographs are a reminder that all architecture is a product of the people and buildings around it – even the most dramatic of forms.

Check out the full photo set below:

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New renderings released by developer Palisades have revealed the interiors of MAD Architects’ upcoming Beverly Hills residential village, the Gardenhouse.

With construction on the project well underway, the images show how the interior spaces, designed by Rottet Studio, will interact with the architecture created by MAD. Inspired by close-knit hilltop villages, the development at 8600 Wilshire Boulevard will feature 18 individual villas that look in onto a shared courtyard.

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Architecture has to be organic… we need to create a space for people to connect, to coexist - MAD Architects. 

As the demographic of China’s buildings changes, one architect is fighting the “artificial” straight lines and tower blocks that are plaguing the skyline. In the government’s mass urbanization, skyscrapers are having to be built constantly for all the people that are flocking to the cities.

Ma Yansong, the founder of MAD Architects explains “They often deal with efficiency, the function, the structure. There's no nature. People love to go closer to nature and other people, so we need to create environments that let people have these emotional connections."

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Following the announcement of Nouvelle AOM as the winner of the competition to redesign Paris’ Tour Montparnasse, runner-up proposals have been revealed from the six finalists: Architecture Studio, Dominique Perrault Architecture, MAD Architects + DGLA, OMA, PLP Architecture and Studio Gang.

The competition sought proposals for the transformation of the Montparnasse Tower, which has been one of the city’s most controversial buildings since its completion in 1973. The new project was required to be  “capable of giving a powerful, innovative, dynamic and ambitious new identity to the famous Parisian landmark, whilst integrating the challenges of usage, comfort and energy performance to the highest levels.”

See the finalist entries, below.

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If you follow MAD Architects on social media, the chances are good that in recent months you've seen a number of updates regarding their Chaoyang Park Plaza project in Beijing. Located at the southern edge of the largest park in Beijing, the project comprises a complex of 5 buildings, including a pair of asymmetric towers that reach 120 meters tall. Now, with the building almost complete, photographer Khoo Guo Jie of Studio Periphery has provided us with this sneak peek of the project.

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MAD Architects has unveiled designs for a new campus for Faraday Future (FF), makers of “the world’s fastest-accelerating electric car.” Located on the site of a former Naval base on Mare Island, adjacent to the Napa River in Northern California, the campus has been envisioned as a “zero-emission base” that will support not only the company’s research, development, and manufacturing headquarters, but also public outreach programming and ecological restoration of the river.

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The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously voted to approve the construction of the long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in LA’s Exposition Park, all but ensuring that the museum has finally found its permanent home after three years of searching.

With Design Miami/ Basel 2017 well underway (from June 13-18), ArchDaily has compiled a list of the best architect-designed furniture pieces on display at the event. This year, notable items include works by MAD Architects, Christ & Gantenbien, Trix & Robert Haussman, John Lautner, Jonathen Muecke, Jean Prouvé and Sou Fujimoto.

New renderings showing an updated design for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles have been revealed as part of a presentation to the LA city planning commission. Designed by MAD Architects, the building will house the Star Wars-directors’ expansive collection of art, illustrations and artifacts, showcasing the art of visual storytelling.

In an presentation at Milan Design Week 2017, MAD Architects has revealed their proposal for the Scali Milano project, which invited five international firms (MAD, Stefano Boeri Architetti, Mecanoo, MIRALLES TAGLIABUE EMBT, and Cino Zucchi Architetti) to design a community-reactivation masterplan aimed at transforming a series of Milan's neglected railyards into "productive social landscapes that establish a harmony between Milan’s citizenry, the larger metropolitan region, and the natural environment."

Titled Historical Future: Milan Reborn, MAD's scheme proposes reorganizing the railyards into a series of interconnected micro-systems that follow five spatial concepts: “City of Connections,” “City of Green,” “City of Living,” “City of Culture,” and “City of Resources.”

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Architectural photographer Marc Goodwin has recently completed the third collection of his "ultra-marathon of photoshoots" – this time in Beijing. Following his unique insight into the spaces occupied by Nordic architectural offices (based in Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki) and his look at studios both large and small lived in by London-based practices, Goodwin has turned his lens to the burgeoning number of offices in the Chinese capital. From MAD Architects' magnificent old printing works to ZAO/standardarchitecture's purpose-built studio, here is a view into the places that architectural offices call home.

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The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has finally found a home. Following nearly a decade of searching, the museum’s board has announced that Los Angeles’ Exposition Park will serve as the site for the MAD Architects-designed building housing the life’s work and expansive art and media collection of one of history’s most celebrated filmmakers, George Lucas.

The skylines of modern China are punctuated by architecture that amazes, inspires, and awes. Many of these towering structures are the work of the Beijing-based experimental practice MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong.

People often ask what 'MAD' stands for; sometimes, I explain it stands for MA Design, but I like MAD (adjective) Architects better. It sounds like a group of architects with an attitude towards design and practice. I think it is important to practice architecture with an attitude, to be critical and sensitive to the issues and challenges in our world.

MAD Architects has unveiled the design of the new China Philharmonic Hall in Beijing. Conceived in collaboration with renowned acoustic expert Yasuhisa Toyota (Walt Disney Concert Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Suntory Hall, etc.), the concert hall will serve as the China Philharmonic Orchestra’s first permanent residency while becoming “a cultural exchange and China’s new locus for classical music.”

To be located at the south side of the Workers Stadium East Gate in Beijing’s Central Business District, the 26,587 square meter (286,000 square foot) building has been envisioned as a “hidden gem” and a place of peaceful respite within the city.

“We wanted to create a pure and sacred oasis in the midst of the bustling city,” says Ma Yansong, founder & principal partner of MAD Architects. “From the moment you enter the building, you will be taken to another time and space.”

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The Ensemble Immobilier Tour Maine-Montparnasse (EITMM) has selected 7 notable firms to continue to the second round in a competition for the renovation of Tour Montparnasse in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France.

Often cited as one of the architecture world’s most hated buildings, Tour Montparnasse has been criticized for its discordance with the Parisian urban landscape – just two years after its completion, new buildings over seven stories high in the city centre were banned, leaving the tower as an alien presence on the skyline.

With the launching of the competition, the EITMM hopes to transform Tour Montparnasse into a beloved landmark with a complete renovation of the facade, the building entry and all interior spaces. The budget for the project is estimated to reach over 300 million Euro ($330 million USD), and will be funded in entirety by the building owners.