Office: MAD Architects | ArchDaily

Hainan Science Museum / MAD Architects

韩爽 - HAN Shuang — Mon, 18 May 2026 02:00:00 +0000

The Hainan Science Museum, designed by Ma Yansong and his firm MAD, has opened to the public on the edge of Wuyuan River National Wetland Park. Since its trial opening, it has welcomed more than 350,000 visitors in four months, with peak days drawing more than 5,800 people. "I wanted the project to be built on the idea of flow and chaos — space, function, and knowledge to flow into one another, freely." says Ma Yansong, Founder and Principal Partner of MAD. "Different subjects should connect, overlap, and stay open. If artificial intelligence can already answer almost any question, a science museum's job is no longer to deliver facts. It is to teach children how to ask them."

Lishui Airport / MAD Architects

Pilar Caballero — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 08:00:00 +0000

The Lishui Airport in Zhejiang Province, designed by MAD, has officially begun operations, marking the regions first direct connection to China's national aviation network. Initiated in 2008 and completed after 17 years of planning and construction, the project signals a new chapter for the mountainous of southwestern Zhejiang.

Fenix Art Museum / MAD Architects

Hadir Al Koshta — Wed, 21 May 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Fenix is a major new museum that explores migration through the lens of art, opening on a landmark site in Rotterdam's City Harbor, developed by internationally acclaimed architects MAD. With a rapidly expanding collection of historic and contemporary objects, Fenix tells the story of migration through a series of encounters with art, architecture, photography, food, and history. Located in what was once part of the world's largest transshipment warehouse, on a peninsula in Rotterdam's historic port district, Fenix overlooks the docks where millions of migrant journeys began and ended. The monumental 16,000 square meter warehouse has been transformed to become Fenix by MAD Architects with restoration consultation by Bureau Polderman. This is MAD Architects' first commission for a public cultural building in Europe, as well as the first museum to be built by a Chinese firm in Europe. The project was initiated by the Droom en Daad Foundation, founded in 2016. The Foundation is helping redefine Rotterdam for the 21st century - developing new kinds of arts and culture institutions and fostering new creative talent that reflects the city's diversity, its spirit, and its history

One River North / MAD Architects

韩爽 — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000

A crack of natural terrain carves through the 16-story glass facade of One River North, (ORN), a new mixed-use development near the center of Denver, Colorado's River North Art District (RiNo). More than just an apartment building, One River North is a vertical landscape for its residents to wander as if hiking in the mountains. "Imagine living in a building yet feeling as though you're immersed in a natural landscape—like living within a canyon itself," says MAD Principal Architect, Ma Yansong.

ZGC International Innovation Center / MAD Architects

Paula Pintos — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The center, designed specifically to serve as the permanent venue for the annual Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum), spans a total floor area of approximately 65,000 square meters and features a 17,000 square meter green roof.

Timeless Beacon Pavilion / MAD Architects

JojoJi — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Ma Yansong was invited by Guangdong Nanhai Art Field to complete an art installation named “Timeless Beacon” in Taiping Xu, Nanhai, Guangdong province of China. The design renovated Taiping market, known as the largest abandoned building in Taiping Xu, a once bustling fair established in the late Ming Dynasty and flourished for centuries until the 1980s when fishermen, businessmen, and villagers gathered there for trading.

Quzhou Sports Park / MAD Architects

Collin Chen — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 22:00:00 +0000

MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong, has completed Quzhou Stadium, the centerpiece of a complex spanning almost 700,000 square meters that will be known as Quzhou Sports Park in Zhejiang Province. Quzhou is a historic city 400 kilometers southwest of Shanghai and surrounded by dense forests to the east and west, its sinuous exterior profile reflects the mountain ridge within a distant view of the site while its landscape evokes those of planets imagined by visionary science fiction authors.

UNIC Apartments / MAD Architects

JojoJi — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong, has completed its first built project "UNIC" in Europe. It is a thirteen-story apartment complex in the newly developed neighborhood of Clichy-Batignolles in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, France. When the firm was selected to design UNIC on one of nine plots assigned to both local and international architects and developers in 2012, MAD Architects' founder and principal Ma Yansong not only became the first Chinese architect to design a major building in Paris but the entirety of Europe as well.

Baiziwan Social Housing / MAD Architects

Collin Chen — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Baiziwan Social Housing (later referred to as Baiziwan) is the first affordable housing project by MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong. Situated near the CBD (central business district) in Beijing, the project covers an area of 93,900 square meters, with a total construction area of 473,300 square meters. The scheme is comprised of 12 residential buildings collectively providing 4000 households. Since its completion, almost 3000 families have moved in. The project offers dwellings for welfare dependents and young professionals. The project is a culmination of Ma Yansong’s extensive research into social housing, which began in 2014. Under the thematic topic “The Sociality of Social Housing,” MAD’s research focuses on the historical development and design of social housing across different countries. The research has been further developed by Ma Yansong’s own engagements with this subject while teaching at Tsinghua University and the Beijing Architecture University. Later, Beijing’s Public Housing Center invited Ma Yansong to design the Baiziwan Social Housing in 2014. MAD saw the commission as an opportunity to improve the living conditions of low-income communities and introduce a fresh perspective to the current dull residential design image in China.

Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center / MAD Architects

韩爽 — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 22:00:00 +0000

The project is located in the city of Yabuli, Heilongjiang Province, a well-known ski town, which has the largest snow training center in China, and the longest alpine ski slope in Asia. On a site of 22,000 square meters with a total interior area of 16,000 square meters, the building consists of a library, exhibition halls, and more than 20 well-equipped multi-functional rooms. This new permanent site is designated to host the annual event of the China Entrepreneurs Forum (CEF) as well as the Chinese Entrepreneurs Museum. The center also hosts educational programs for entrepreneurs and corporations, which can accommodate big conferences, exhibitions, corporate training programs, and think tanks simultaneously.

Tunnel of Light / MAD Architects

Andreas Luco — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 20:00:00 +0000

In Echigo-Tsumari in Japan’s mountainous snow country traditional ways of farming are still being practiced. The region is suffering from an aging and decreasing population as many young people relocate to cities for work or education. In 2000, Fram Kitagawa founded the Echigo-Tsumari Triennale to revive the region’s cultural energy.

The Cloudscape of Haikou / MAD Architects

韩爽 — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

MAD joins this collection of pavilions with a building containing a bookstore and citizen amenities. Situated in Century Park on the shore of Haikou Bay, the project covers an area of 4,397 square meters, with a construction area of 1,380 square meters. To the south side of the pavilion are a library and reading space capable of holding 10,000 books, as well as a multi-functional audio-visual area: free and open for public use. Meanwhile, the building’s northern area features a café, public restrooms, barrier-free restrooms, showers, a nursery room, a public rest area, and a roof garden.

Hutong Bubble 218 Urban Renovation / MAD Architects

Collin Chen — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 19:00:00 +0000

MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong, has completed the restoration and reconstruction of a 305 sqm traditional courtyard house that dates back to the Qing Dynasty. “Hutong Bubble 218” is a continuation of MAD’s exploration into urban renovations as a means of revitalizing the Chinese capital’s old neighborhoods that have been confronted with degradation and demolition as a result of rapid development. MAD’s renovation demonstrates how small-scale, artistic interventions can provide new spaces and programs for these adverse areas, creating a dialogue between the old and the new.

YueCheng Courtyard Kindergarten / MAD Architects

韩爽 — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 07:00:00 +0000

In 2017, MAD Architects was commissioned to design a kindergarten next to a senior citizens’ apartment in Beijing, reflecting the client’s "intergenerational integration" ethos that blends pre-school education and eldercare. The subject site, covering an area of 9,275 square meters, consisted of an original 18th-century Siheyuan courtyard, an adjacent replica courtyard built in the 1990s, and a four-story modern building. Following its completion at the end of 2019, the kindergarten now serves as a pre-school education space for 390 children aged from 1.5 to 6 years old.

Gardenhouse / MAD Architects

Paula Pintos — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 06:00:00 +0000

Located at 8600 Wilshire Boulevard in California’s Beverly Hills, “Gardenhouse” is a mixed-use scheme consisting of 18 residential units above ground-floor commercial space. Evoking the lush landscape of Beverly Hills, the scheme becomes a “hillside village” with residential units “growing” from the building’s living green wall. Peaking above the landscaped envelope, a cluster of white façaded, irregular-shaped windows and gabled-roof structures create a dynamic neighborhood, and a playful, witty, though simple homage to the iconic hillsides of Los Angeles.

Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort / MAD Architects

Martita Vial della Maggiora — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 23:00:00 +0000

Sheraton Moon Hotel is located next to Nan Tai Lake in Huzhou, a city situated west of Shanghai and north of Hangzhou, overlooking Suzhou and Wuxi across the lake. Since ancient times, Huzhou has been known as “the house of silk” and “the land of plenty" and is the only ancient city of culture in the surrounding area named after the lake. The favorable cultural and geographical environment brings both traditional and modern atmospheres to the hotel, distinguished by its unique design which integrates the building into the waterscape of Tai Lake, subsequently creating a poetic yet artificial echo of the natural landscape.

Living Garden / MAD Architects

María Francisca González — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 13:00:00 +0000

MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong, presents its model for the “home of the future” on the occasion of the 2018 China House Vision Exhibition. “Living Garden”, conceived in partnership with Hanergy, breaks down the boundaries between interior and exterior, giving inhabitants the feeling that they are living in nature.

Chaoyang Park Plaza / MAD Architects

Diego Hernández — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Positioned on the southern edge of Beijing’s Chaoyang Park ─ the largest remaining park in Beijing’s central business district area ─ the 220,000 sqm complex includes 10 buildings which unfold as a classic Shanshui painting on an urban scale. Having a similar position and function as Central Park in Manhattan, but unlike the modern box-like buildings that only create a separation between the park and the city, “Chaoyang Park Plaza” instead is an expansion of nature. It is an extension of the park into the city, naturalizing the CBD’s strong artificial skyline, borrowing scenery from a distant landscape ─ a classical approach to Chinese garden architecture, where nature and architecture blend into one another.