Andrea D’Antrassi is a registered architect in Italy and Switzerland, and received his Master’s Degree in Architecture from Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Switzerland. He joined MAD in 2010. Andrea is responsible for managing MAD's practice in Europe and the Middle East, as well as overseeing the overall operations of the Rome office. With solid experiences gained from overseas projects in US, Italy, Australia and China, he adds a valuable global vision to MAD. Andrea has been involved with Roma 71 Via Boncompagni, Huangshan Mountain Village, Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, and FENIX Museum of Migration in Rotterdam.

Rome Office

Quito, a city of coexisting contrasts influenced by its diverse ecosystems, ethnicities and traditions, is the capital of Ecuador and a UNESCO world heritage site, which features the best-preserved and least altered historic center in South America.

Inspired by its natural backdrop, MAD seeks to connect residents to the beauty of nature through the building’s dynamic design. Growing from the earth to the sky, Qondesa’s exterior facade emulates twisting vines weaving around the building to taper at its top, and sprout greenery which form planters throughout the building’s balconies. In addition, the exterior shape of Qondesa is designed so as not to block natural light and views from the surrounding buildings.


Quito, Ecuador

Mixed Use

Jon Kontuly, Xie Peng, Horace Hou, Edwin Cho, Matthew McFetrick

Uribe Schwarzkopf

Qondesa

Chaoyang Park Plaza is located on the southern edge of Beijing’s Chaoyang Park. Inspired by traditional Chinese Shanshui paintings, the project introduces natural forms into the urban core, creating a spatial experience that merges city and landscape.

The development includes a group of ten buildings that evoke imagery of mountains, valleys, rocks, and water. Twin office towers rise like peaks beside the park’s lake, linked by a transparent atrium. Low-rise commercial buildings resemble eroded stones, arranged to form a quiet garden space. Armani apartment buildings feature staggered balconies that open residents to natural light and park views.

With curved black-and-white forms, the architecture reflects the layered tones of Chinese ink paintings. Pine trees, bamboo, rocks, and ponds are woven throughout the site, grounding the project in Eastern spatial traditions.

Functional systems are integrated into the design, including vertical fins that support natural ventilation and a cooling pond at the base of the towers. The project has earned LEED Gold certification for its energy-efficient strategies.



Beijing, China

Chaoyang Park Plaza

Appearing so evident amidst a thriving metropolitan district of Harbin, China, spanning 200 meters in length, the China Wood Sculpture Museum sits as a locational anomaly, seemingly out of place, surrounded by a densely populated Chinese-style neighborhood and residential complexes. The museum embodies some of the foremost conceptual and formal ideals that define the work of MAD, bringing out an expression and abstraction of nature to an otherwise quotidian surrounding. The boundaries between solid and liquid are blurred throughout this 13,000 sqm building, referencing the local natural scenery and landscape.

The building's exterior is covered by polished steel plates, mirroring the surroundings and the changing light. The solid walls ensure minimal heat loss while the breaking and twisting motion of the emerging skylights splits the surface and allows in light from the low-hanging sun of northern China; this provides sufficient natural diffused illumination to the three halls on the interior.

The museum mainly houses local wood sculptures as well as paintings depicting the ice and snow of the regional scenery. In the context of the large-scale modern urban setting, the museum itself serves as a new interpretation of nature. The surreal interaction between the museum and the city breaks through the tedium of the urban shell, revitalizing the surroundings with a new cultural feature.


Harbin, China

Culture

Yu Kui, Daniel Gillen, Bas van Wylick, Diego Perez, Jordan Kanter, Liu Huiying, Huang Wei, Julian Sattler, Liu Weiwei, Tang Liu, Mao Peihong, Maria Alejandra Obregon, Nickolas Urano, Gus Chan, Shin Park, Alejandro Gonzalez

The Architectural Design and Research Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology 

Inhabit Group

Gehry Technologies

Zhejiang Jing Gong Steel Structure Co. Ltd.

Wood Sculpture Museum

MAD won a competition in 2014 to design the museum that spans 11 acres. Envisioned as something otherworldly – like a cloud floating over the city – it creates a canopy that shades the park below, exploring the relationship between nature and the built urban environment.

The museum is comprised of gallery spaces, cinema theaters, a library, café and restaurants, along with an expansive landscaped rooftop that brings the greenery from the surrounding part up over the architecture. The terrace allows visitors to experience the museum from another perspective, while taking in panoramic views of Los Angeles.The five-storey museum is a personal project of American filmmaker George Lucas and will house his comprehensive collection of narrative art, comprising more than 10,000 pieces that include comics, illustrations, paintings, photographs, moving images, sculptures, and other works of art linked to movies, along with film memorabilia. This world class landmark project will be MAD’s first museum to be built in the US upon its completion in 2025.

Los Angeles, USA

Daniel Weber, Jordan Kanter, Daniel Gillen, Wu Kaicong, Zhao Wei, Flora Lee, Jonathan Kontuly, Carmen Carrasco, Jacob Hu, Satoko Narishige, Zhu Yuhao, Casey Kell, Matthew Pugh, Kazushi Miyamoto, Ben Yuqiang, Rozita Kashirtseva, Hiroki Fujino, Chris Nolop, Kek Seow, Younjin Park, Brecht van Acker, Andrea D’Antrassi, Zhang Yiran, Pouya Goshayeshi, Dora Lam, Tong Shangren, Steven Park Chaffer, Sean Tan, Sheenam Mujoo, Dookee Chung, Cesar D Pena Del Rey, Valeria Pestereva,Wang Yiqi, Dmitry Seregin, Lin Yuyang, Jian Zhehong, Zhang Lu, Zeng Hao, Young Koo Kang, Shen Han

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Momentum is an installation presented at Milan Design Week 2023 in collaboration with Interni and AXA IM Alts. Installed in the main courtyard of the University of Milan, the work explores the concept of time and the moment of artistic creation through a minimal cubic form.

The structure acts as a reflective object by day, mirroring its historic surroundings and becoming a dynamic part of the environment. At night, it transforms becoming transparent and illuminated from within—revealing a different spatial character. This duality expresses the passage and transformation of time.

Beyond its physical presence, Momentum integrates digital art through augmented reality. Visitors can access AR experiences by scanning a QR code on Instagram, extending the installation into a participatory virtual space where users become part of the creative process.


Milan, Italy

Installation 

Interni, AXA IM ALTS

Maco Technology srl, Roberto Maffei

Luce & Light

Studio AIRA

Nephos

Moreno Maggi, Andrea D’Antrassi, Matteo Vercelloni

The Momentum

Gu is MAD’s contemporary take on the traditional wooden armchair, inspired by the skeletal structure “gu” meaning “bones” in Chinese. The design features flowing, interconnected joints that resemble fibrous connective tissue, allowing each surface to transition seamlessly into the next.

The chair’s organic form blurs the line between structure and body, evoking the sense of a living organism rather than a static object. Its sculptural silhouette is accentuated by the strong directionality of the wood grain, which follows the chair’s smooth curves and enhances its fluid appearance.

Both natural and futuristic, Gu reflects Ma Yansong’s ongoing exploration of form, material, and human connection merging traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design language.


Rome, Italy

Product

Casey Kell, Matthew Pugh

Gu Chair

Lishui, a “forest city” in southwest Zhejiang Province, is renowned for its lush greenery and valleys. Its first airport is positioned as a domestic regional airport with an anticipated annual passenger throughput of one million, located in the hilly terrain that 15 kilometers southwest of the city. The planning and design try to respect the original site while ensuring accessibility, highlighting the characteristics of a mountain airport, and aiming to inspire tourism.

Covering 2,267 hectares of land with a maximum fill height difference of nearly 100 meters, the airport adopts a large silver-white overhanging roof resembling a white-feathered bird ready to soar. The bird-like form absorbs the elevation changes and merges the airport into the mountains, making the airport a spiritual landmark in the region.

Lishui, China

Infrastructure

LIJ Airport

The Conrad Hotel in Beijing introduces an alternative approach to high-rise architecture in the city’s dense central business district. Located at a major intersection along East 3rd Ring Road, the hotel challenges the rigidity of the surrounding urban fabric with a form that moves fluidly through the skyline.

The facade features a continuous, sculpted surface that responds to the internal grid and shifts in rhythm as it rises. The curving geometry brings a sense of softness and organic motion to an area defined by efficiency and repetition. Positioned next to Tuanjiehu Park, one of the few green spaces in the district, the building functions as a transition between the natural landscape and the city’s built environment.

Our design envisions the structure as a form of “living architecture,” emerging from the rigid context like a plant growing through pavement. The design introduces movement, variation, and a sense of life into an otherwise uniform setting.

Inside, guest rooms feature curved walls and irregular window openings that shape the interiors into light-filled, protective spaces. These sculpted environments offer views of the city framed by softened geometry, creating a distinct spatial experience that contrasts with the exterior surroundings.


Hospitality

Conrad Hotel

Yiwu, well recognized in international trade, is a representative of Jiangnan culture. Located on the south bank of the Dongyang River, Yiwu Grand Theater elegantly floats on the water’s surface in a romantic atmosphere. It is defined by a layering of semi-transparent glass canopies that resembles the texture of silk. The subtle curves echo the Jiangnan-style eaves of local traditional architectures. The semi-transparent glass curtain wall not only acts as a shading system, but also optimizes the use of natural light within the interior.

Yiwu Grand Theater emphasizes public engagement: it allows pedestrians to meander along the north side of the water. An amphitheater and large open plaza extend into the water, while landscaped terraces offer an immersive natural experience within the urban context. Between the grand theater and the conference center lies a “valley” of trees. The rich landscaping weaves itself between the varying heights of the two buildings, providing another public space for visitors to explore.

Yiwu, China

Yiwu Grand Theater

The Absolute Towers nicknamed the “Marilyn Monroe Towers” represent a departure from conventional high-rise design. Rather than emphasizing vertical lines, the towers feature smooth, continuous balconies that spiral around the façade, creating a sense of motion and fluidity. Each floor rotates slightly in response to surrounding views, offering residents unique perspectives of the sky, city, and landscape.

This organic form reflects our ongoing inquiry into how architecture can reconnect people with nature in dense urban environments. Instead of conforming to modernism’s machine-like logic, the design embraces complexity, emotion, and environmental awareness. The towers aim to redefine the skyline not through height alone, but through softness, rhythm, and presence.

The result is a landmark that transforms a suburban intersection into a new urban center an iconic statement of identity for Mississauga, and an architectural experience that engages both body and spirit.

Andrea D'antrassi