Name for entries: The 14th Architizer A+Awards celebrates structure’s new period of craft. Apply for publication on-line and in print by submitting your initiatives earlier than the Remaining Entry Deadline on January thirtieth!
Over the previous twenty years, MAD Architects has constructed a physique of labor that resists simple classification. Their buildings are sometimes described as futuristic or sculptural, but these labels hardly ever seize what really drives the observe. At its core, MAD’s structure is anxious with how area is felt. How type, motion and panorama form the emotional expertise simply as a lot as operate.
Based in 2004 by Ma Yansong, the studio emerged at a second when up to date Chinese language structure largely favored rational programs and restrained expression. MAD took the alternative place, treating nature, reminiscence and instinct as design instruments somewhat than indulgences. That stance initially set them aside, and over time, it solidified right into a design language that’s now immediately identifiable throughout continents.
As Ma Yansong joins the jury of the Architizer A+Awards, this timeline appears to be like on the physique of labor that makes him some of the compelling voices in up to date structure.
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Origins: Rejection of Rational Modernism
Within the mid-2000s, as Beijing’s historic hutong neighborhoods had been more and more erased in favor of large-scale, standardized redevelopment, MAD Architects started testing a unique strategy. Quite than treating modernization as a alternative between preservation and demolition, the studio explored whether or not change may happen by means of small, exact interventions that labored with present city life.
That place first materialized in Hutong Bubble 32, MAD’s first accomplished mission and a constructed prototype of its Beijing 2050 imaginative and prescient, initially introduced on the 2006 Venice Structure Biennale and inbuilt 2009. Inserted into a conventional courtyard compound, the mirrored “bubble” housed primary infrastructure whereas quietly activating new social use. Formally alien but visually absorptive, it mirrored brick, timber and vegetation, permitting the outdated and the brand new to coexist with out clear hierarchy.
A decade later, MAD returned to this concept with Hutong Bubble No. 218, increasing the experiment right into a extra complicated courtyard renovation. The 2 initiatives body the hutong as a long-term inquiry, establishing micro-scale intervention as a critical various to wholesale city substitute. And in MAD’s case, a conceptual basis for all the things that adopted.
Absolute Towers: The Undertaking That Modified All the pieces
Absolute Towers marked a decisive shift in MAD Architects’ trajectory. Received by means of a world competitors in 2006 and accomplished in 2012, the dual residential towers in Mississauga grew to become the studio’s first large-scale fee and its entry level into international architectural discourse.
Situated in a quickly growing North American suburb, the mission challenged the prevailing logic of the residential high-rise as a impartial, efficiency-driven object. Quite than stacking equivalent ground plates, MAD designed the towers as constantly rotating kinds, with every degree subtly adjusted in response to orientation and consider. A steady balcony wraps the buildings, dissolving the inflexible vertical segmentation typical of tall residential structure and reconnecting home life with sky, mild and panorama.
Nicknamed the “Marilyn Monroe Towers,” the mission entered public creativeness as a lot as skilled debate. Extra importantly, it demonstrated that MAD’s strategy (beforehand examined by means of smaller experiments) may stand up to the calls for of scale, engineering and regulation, establishing the observe as a critical worldwide contender somewhat than a speculative outlier.
Cultural Landscapes: MAD’s Breakthrough in China
Ordos Artwork and Metropolis Museum by MAD Architects, Ordos, China
Ordos Artwork and Metropolis Museum by MAD Architects, Ordos, China
MAD’s first main cultural mission in China, the Ordos Artwork and Metropolis Museum, reads nearly like a refusal. Set throughout the inflexible geometry of Ordos’ new metropolis plan, the constructing seems as an amorphous mass that appears to have landed somewhat than been positioned. Wrapped in polished steel louvers, it displays and dissolves its environment, turning inward as an alternative of partaking the town head-on. Inside, the logic shifts. Canyon-like corridors, skewed proportions and light-weight filtering by means of skylights exchange the readability of the grasp plan exterior. Tradition right here is just not displayed as an object within the metropolis, however shielded from it.
That intuition carries by means of to the China Wooden Sculpture Museum, the place structure once more behaves as a steady shell. The constructing feels compressed and geological, much less involved with visible openness than with framing cultural reminiscence by means of sequence, mass and materials presence.
Harbin Opera Home by MAD Architects, Harbin, China | Photograph by Adam Mørk | Well-liked Selection Winner, Structure +Wooden, 4th Architizer A+Awards
Harbin Opera Home by MAD Architects, Harbin, China | Photograph by Hufton+Crow Pictures | Well-liked Selection Winner, Structure +Wooden, 4th Architizer A+Awards
This trajectory reaches its most assured expression within the Harbin Opera Home. Embedded inside wetlands and formed by wind, snow and motion, the constructing now not resists its context however grows from it. Guests climb, cross and inhabit the structure as if traversing terrain, blurring the road between efficiency area and public panorama. Right here, MAD’s concepts absolutely open up. Structure stops appearing as an object and turns into an surroundings, signaling a shift from cultural safety towards collective expertise.
From Cultural Expression to Public Duty
The “Practice Station within the Forest” – Jiaxing Railway Station by MAD Architects, Nanhu District, Jiaxing, China
As MAD’s cultural initiatives gained visibility, the studio more and more turned its consideration to structure that needed to work not simply symbolically, however operationally. These had been buildings outlined much less by spectacle than by how they reorganized every day life within the metropolis.
That shift is clearly articulated within the Jiaxing Practice Station redevelopment. Quite than treating the station as a monumental object, MAD buried the transport infrastructure underground and returned the floor to the general public as a steady city park. Trains, retail and circulation function beneath, whereas above, residents stroll, collect and move by means of what seems like civic floor somewhat than transit area. The historic station is reconstructed at a one-to-one scale as a railway museum, anchoring reminiscence inside an in any other case up to date system.
Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Middle by MAD Architects, Shangzhi, Harbin, China | Jury Winner, Corridor / Theater, ninth Architizer A+Awards
An analogous sensitivity shapes the Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Middle, the place a national-scale establishment is quietly embedded right into a mountainous panorama. Its tent-like type resists dominance, favoring integration and ambiance over assertion.
Quzhou Stadium by MAD Architects, Quzhou, China |Jury Winner, Stadium & Enviornment, tenth Architizer A+Awards
Quzhou Stadium by MAD Architects, Quzhou, China | Jury Winner, Stadium & Enviornment, tenth Architizer A+Awards
On the largest scale, Quzhou Stadium pushes this logic additional. Submerged inside a park-like terrain, the sports activities complicated dissolves the boundary between elite competitors and on a regular basis public use. Right here, structure turns into infrastructure, panorama and civic area directly, marking a mature part in MAD’s engagement with public accountability.
MAD on the World Stage
By the mid-2010s, MAD’s trajectory had shifted from worldwide recognition to sustained international observe. With places of work established in Beijing, Rome and Los Angeles, the studio started working throughout continents as a matter in fact somewhat than exception. Initiatives in Europe, Japan and the USA adopted not as declarations of arrival, however as pure extensions of a design strategy already examined by means of cultural and civic work from home.
One River North by MAD Architects, Denver, Colorado
In Rotterdam, MAD’s Fenix opened in 2025 inside a former harbour warehouse, introducing a brand new public route that rises by means of the constructing and frames migration as a spatial expertise formed by motion and reminiscence. In Denver, One River North carries associated concepts right into a residential context, carving a vertical passage by means of the constructing and permitting every day circulation to information how the structure is used and understood.
Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts by MAD Architects, Los Angeles, California
The identical sensibility additionally shapes MAD’s increasing work in the USA, most notably within the Lucas Museum of Narrative Artwork, set to open in 2026 in Los Angeles. Organized as a steady spatial sequence, the museum approaches storytelling as one thing skilled by means of motion, reinforcing the studio’s ongoing curiosity in how folks navigate, inhabit and keep in mind architectural area.
Trying Forward: A Follow Outlined by Continuity Throughout Scale
Courtyard Kindergarten by MAD Architects, Beijing, China | Photograph by Iwan Baan | Well-liked Selection Winner, Kindergartens, eighth Architizer A+Awards
Throughout MAD’s work, scale has by no means been the purpose of departure. Whether or not designing environments for youngsters, non permanent installations for worldwide exhibitions, or public areas supposed for gradual, on a regular basis use, the identical ideas recur. Structure is approached as a lived sequence somewhat than a static type, formed by motion, ambiance and emotional response. The applications shift, the audiences change, however the underlying logic stays regular.
That very same logic now informs MAD’s largest city gestures, the newest of which is taking form at Shenzhen Bay Tradition Plaza. Deliberate as a serious cultural and public complicated alongside the waterfront, the mission brings collectively exhibition halls, academic areas and civic facilities beneath an expansive, earth-covered roof. Quite than asserting itself as an object on the skyline, the structure folds into the panorama, extending the town’s public realm towards the bay and making a steady park that may be inhabited, crossed and occupied all through the day. Circulation, topography and open area are handled as the first architectural drivers, reinforcing MAD’s long-standing perception that civic buildings ought to first function as locations for folks.
Shenzhen Bay Tradition Park by MAD Architects, Shenzhen, China
As this work strikes towards completion, Shenzhen Bay may even host the Architizer A+Awards Gala this January, situating the celebration inside a setting that mirrors the values the awards search to acknowledge. As Ma Yansong joins the A+Awards jury, his physique of labor provides a transparent level of reference: structure judged not by type or scale alone, however by its skill to stay coherent, humane and emotionally resonant throughout each context during which it operates.
Enter the A+Awards
Name for entries: The 14th Architizer A+Awards celebrates structure’s new period of craft. Apply for publication on-line and in print by submitting your initiatives earlier than the Remaining Entry Deadline on January thirtieth!
