MAD 2024 Review

2024 marks the 20th anniversary of MAD. The culture of MAD is all about diving headfirst into challenges, and our goal has always been clear: to become the world's best, most representative group of Chinese youth energy and imagination. ——Ma Yansong

Our 2024

Practice

One River North, Denver

"One River North" extends and integrates Colorado's diverse natural landscape into the urban fabric.The façade facing the Rocky Mountains splits open like the Grand Canyon, spanning ten stories. It has been honored with "Dezeen Awards - World's Top 10 Architecture" and "Archdaily Building of the Year - Global Winner".

ZGC International Innovation Center, Beijing

The architecture unfolds gently across the terrain from north to south, gradually dissolving into the urban fabric.

Its green roof blends harmoniously into the surrounding landscape of Beijing's "Three Hills and Five Gardens" with understated elegance, creating a rare urban land art within the city.

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, Under Construction

MAD's design resembles a "floating" futuristic battleship that has "landed" at the gateway of Los Angeles' Exposition Park.

The elevated structure transforms its ground level and rooftop into expansive public spaces, while the interior evokes the feeling of a vast, luminous cavern—open and awe-inspiring.

Recognized as one of ArchDaily's "Most Anticipated Buildings of 2025."

Quzhou Sports Park, Under Construction

The Quzhou Sports Park merges functionality with natural topography, creating a land-art landscape reminiscent of volcanic formations.

At the same time, it transforms into an open, shared, civic urban space—seamlessly connecting people with nature.

Jiaxing Civic Center, Under Construction

The three venues stand "hand-in-hand," unified by a sweeping circular roof that embraces them as one.

At its heart, a central circular lawn serves as the vibrant civic core—where architecture and people interact in shared connection.

Yiwu Grand Theater, Under Construction

The Grand Theater rises like layered sails upon the Yiwu River, floating gracefully above the water.

The theater and convention center are strategically aligned along visual corridors between both riverbanks. Even without attending performances, people can enjoy this omnidirectional urban oasis—where culture and nature converge in a vibrant public space.

China Philharmonic Concert Hall, Beijing, Under Construction

The concert hall emerges subtly through translucent veils amidst the urban bustle—a cultural sanctuary embodying Eastern philosophy of "hidden worldly retreat."

Here, humanity, nature, and music converge in harmonious dialogue.

The Ark - Shanghai Zhangjiang Cement Factory

The juxtaposition of old and new constructs a three-dimensional dialogue across time and space.

The new office structure rises like an elevated ark, while the preserved factory interior transforms into an urban waterfront salon.

Honored with the Architizer A+ Awards Jury Winner in "Sustainable Unbuilt - Non-Residential" category.

Nanhai Art Center, Foshan, Entering construction

The main structure retreats beneath a floating canopy, while semi-outdoor transitional spaces engage in dynamic interplay with both the lakescape and architectural program.

Ephemeral Bubble, Japan Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2024

The translucent "Ephemeral Bubble" clings to a century-old house like a symbiotic organism, transforming the historic structure into a versatile venue for performances, ceremonies, and communal gatherings.

Amazing Walk, Milan Design Week 2024

Hundreds of interlocking triangles coalesce into an organic form that echoes mountain silhouettes, their semi-transparent skin offering tantalizing glimpses of inner spaces—inviting exploration while preserving the poetry of the unseen.

The Never Hut, Guangdong Nanhai Land Art Festival 2024

The mobile, UFO-like forest cabin nestles discreetly within historic architecture—a whimsical hybrid that rekindles childhood wonder while propelling imaginations into the future.

Honored as one of Designboom’s "Top 10 Pavilions of the Year" (Global, 2023).

Solar Tower, Guangzhou Design Triennial

"Solar Tower" – Ma Yansong’s visionary reimagining of urban habitation – features bubble-like living modules floating above the city, liberating the ground below to return forests and open land to humanity.

City of Time, Aranya Theater Festival 2024

This organic village mirrors the historical development of city-states, while granting artists and audiences both spatial experiences and a space to imagine.

Exhibition and Events

Ma Yansong appointed Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale School of Architecture

Ma Yansong led the Fall 2024 graduate design studio "Narrative Arcs" and delivered a keynote lecture titled "Landscapes in Motion".

"Ma Yansong: Landscapes in Motion", HKDI Gallery

"Ma Yansong: Landscapes in Motion" was presented at HKDI Gallery in Hong Kong. This isMAD’s first major Hong Kong exhibition surveys two decades of radical practice through 20+ architectural projects, research initiatives, and spatial artworks.

Awards

MAD

-archello World’s Best Architecture Firms (Global, 2024)

-Architizer A+ Awards Innovation Design of the Year (2024)

Publication

Ma Yansong, "Twenty Cities"

Twenty Cities

Ma Yansong

SDX Joint Publishing Company 2024-7

ISBN：9787108078452

“Twenty Cities” blends Ma Yansong's memoir, architectural manifesto, and urban ethnography through the lens of twenty global cities that shaped his vision.

On the occasion of Twenty Cities' publication, Ma Yansong engaged in a series of thematic dialogues with prominent cultural figures—Xi Chuan, Gao Xiaosong, Jin Yucheng, Liu Jiakun.

Documentary

A Rhapsody of Cities

Together with his partners Enli, Chen Minghao, Cai Guoqiang, Wagner and Chen Chong, Ma Yansong traveled to six cities around the world. As questioners, they posed questions to the world and to themselves, delved into the design concepts behind global architectures, explored the courage of the master architects to "create something different", and uncovered the humanistic stories of people living within these architectures and cities.

Greetings, 2025

Near Completion Projects

FENIX Museum of Migration, Rotterdam, Netherlands

A soaring silver staircase—fluid as mercury—transforms Europe’s once-largest warehouse into a dynamic new landmark.

This hybrid museum offers visitors panoramic cityscapes from its cantilevered observation decks and immersive migrant histories via AI-curated oral archives.

Honored as one of ArchDaily’s "Most Anticipated Buildings of 2025"

Shenzhen Bay Culture Park

MAD put forward the design concept of "Faraway Future", incorporating surreal land art scenes into the real urban space. This has transformed this urban public space open to the citizens into a breathing place where people in the busy city can connect with nature.

Anji Culture and Art Center

The six venues spread out gently and are scattered under the green tea fields and the "bamboo leaf" roofs, resembling a land art landscape. It has been listed as one of the most anticipated projects to be completed globally in 2025 on Archdaily.

Lishui Airport

The design draws reference from the local typical hilly landform. The small yet beautiful architectural forms are combined with the mountain shapes to create a garden airport that "pursues convenience and humanity and engages in a dialogue with the natural environment".

Hainan Science and Technology Museum, Haikou

The main building of the Hainan Science and Technology Museum spirals upward, taking on the shape of a silver cloud, creating a scenario where "the primeval rainforest meets future technology". It has been listed as one of the most anticipated projects to be completed globally in 2025 on Archdaily.

Tencent Dachanwan, Shenzhen

The ground floors of the three interconnected cloud buildings in the center are elevated, turning the ground into an open and green urban gray space. While providing a venue for public activities, it also forms a visual corridor along the coast.

Cloud 9 Sports Center, Shijiazhuang

MAD's design ingeniously solves the problem of obstruction caused by the original cooling towers on the site. The cooling towers, which are lifted to the second floor, are surrounded by an aerial activity layer on the outside. The roof on the first floor extends towards the interface of the park from four directions and is partially covered with green plants.

Exhibition

"Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion"will be presented at Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam Netherlands.

This is a large-scale exhibition overseas by Ma Yansong/MAD. Curated by Aric Chen, the exhibition showcases Ma Yansong/MAD's critical response to modernism, as well as his understanding and expression of the conceptual relationships among traditional Eastern culture, nature, and emotions.

Thanks to your support,

Happy New Year!