Kin Li holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and joined MAD in May 2011. His highly sensitive touch in design and outstanding ability in understanding art, as well as skills applying various design software, provide him a solid base to fully understand and translate MAD’s design philosophy and language into complex 3-D models for teams to further develop. Kin served as the key designer and has participated in multiple iconic projects that synchronized MAD’s design philosophy, including Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, Quzhou Sports Park, Paris UNIC, Roma 71 Via Boncompagni, Anji Culture and Art Center, Hainan Science and Technology Museum, ZGC Forum Conference Center, Pingtan Art Museum, Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, Chaoyang Park Plaza, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Jiaxing Civic Center, Lishui Airport, and Nanhai Art Center.

Beijing Office

Kin Li holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and joined MAD in May 2011. His highly sensitive touch in design and outstanding ability in understanding art, as well as skills applying various design software, provide him a solid base to fully understand and translate MAD’s design philosophy and language into complex 3-D models for teams to further develop. Kin served as the key designer and has participated in multiple iconic projects that synchronized MAD’s design philosophy, including Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, Quzhou Sports Park, Paris UNIC, Roma 71 Via Boncompagni, Anji Culture and Art Center, Hainan Science and Technology Museum, ZGC Forum Conference Center, Pingtan Art Museum, Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, Chaoyang Park Plaza, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Jiaxing Civic Center, Lishui Airport, and Nanhai Art Center.

Located at the western edge of the Milano Innovation District (MIND), MoLo is our vision for a new type of urban gateway that integrates mobility infrastructure, public space, and sustainable design. In collaboration with Andrea Nonni, Open Project, and Progeca, we designed MoLo as a dynamic entry point for visitors arriving from the Rho municipality and surrounding areas.

The building combines transportation, education, and civic functions. At its core is a five-story parking structure with space for 1,500 vehicles. Surrounding it are laboratories, offices, commercial areas, and a supermarket. A central public tunnel connects both sides of the site and features a sculptural metal staircase and an open gallery that links to the nearby Rho-Arese Park.

Vegetation climbs the building’s façades, softening its appearance and improving air quality. The top surface houses more than 8,000 square meters of photovoltaic panels that supply renewable energy to the site and district. MoLo is constructed using a prefabricated concrete frame and follows the DfMA (Design for Manufacturing and Assembly) approach to reduce material waste and improve efficiency.

MoLo is not just a logistics facility it’s a public interface and a sustainable anchor for the future of urban mobility.


Milan, Italy

Transportation

Andrea d’Antrassi

Romina Carpentieri , Alessandro Fisalli, Paolo Pirri, Francesco Nardacci, Aldo Schirripa Spagnolo, Francesco Pasta, Anna Spaggiari, Elena Bellocchio

Architetto Andrea Nonni

Open Project srl

Progeca srl

MOLO

MAD won a competition to lead the rebuilding of 71 Via Boncompagni in the heart of Rome in early 2010. After four years of design development and hearings, the project was approved by the Rome Planning, Programming and Implementation Department and the Rome City Council in 2014. The project will become MAD’s first realized project in Europe.

Built in the 1970s, the existing building is a commercial courtyard building attached to an early 20th-century chapel located on the street corner. The primary challenge posed by the competition stage was how to transform this incongruous modern building into a deluxe residential complex.

In modern buildings, beams, pillars, and floor slabs have replaced walls as the core elements of architectural structure. While freed from their structural obligations, facades remain canvases for expression and style. Instead of demolishing and reconstructing the entire building, MAD will simply remove the existing facades, retain the structural framework, and insert new living units to transform the building’s function. New balconies and gardens will emerge from the “gaps and voids” between new residential units and the original framework structure. The boundary between the building and the street blurs as the new design peels away bulky facades and replaces them with a more open, transparent scheme.

After realigning the existing structural system, the building will contain a “bookshelf” structure. 145 residential units of various sizes and layouts, ranging from studios to urban villas with facades made of custom metal and glass, will be intricately inserted into this 8-level concrete “bookshelf” system. The full-height curved glass windows shift and protrude in a controlled choreography between the floor slabs. The “voids” between the glass and the framework will be transformed into gardens and balconies, bringing natural elements and sunlight into the living areas.

Residents can see the interior courtyard through a hazy façade made of translucent metallic curtains. The existing modern garden will be transformed into an abstract one with a vast pond at the center that reflects the bordering trees and the sky above. Natural sunlight filters through voids in the pond and the surrounding garden, streaming through to the ramp of the underground garage below.

Contemporary living in a museum-like city like Rome is often hidden behind its historical facades. Through this adaptive rebuild project, this “open” building will be able to return vitality and urban living to the traditional neighborhood.

Rome, Italy

Mixed Use

Zhao Wei, Achille Tortini, Gustavo van Staveren, Giannantonio Bongiorno, Jei Kim, Elin Thorisdottir

Ing. Sergio Schisani

Studio Busnengo 

71 Via Boncompagni

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

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.

Toronto, Canada

Residential

Absolute Tower

Absolute Towers

Fifth Ring is an immersive installation created for Milan Design Week 2018, set within the courtyard of the historic Seminario Arcivescovile. Invited by INTERNI, the project reinterprets the traditional courtyard through a single architectural gesture a suspended illuminated ring that transforms the spatial experience.

The circular form contrasts with the square geometry of the 16th-century courtyard, establishing a new spatial order that challenges classical symmetry. Viewed from above, the ring becomes a fifth façade. From the ground, it frames the sky, redirecting the viewer’s attention upward and creating a moment of reflection and pause within the dense urban fabric.

Reflecting pools on the ground mirror the sky and the ring, forming a visual connection between the earth and the atmosphere. The result is a layered, open environment where light, water, and architecture interact to suggest a space beyond the visible.

Fifth Ring explores the relationship between architecture, perception, and the unknown. By inserting a minimal but impactful intervention into a historical context, the project encourages a renewed dialogue between human presence and the infinite. It serves as a temporary shift in perception, transforming a static space into one that feels expansive, immersive, and connected to a larger, cosmic dimension.


Installation 

Fifth Ring

Our proposal for the Bezos Learning Center reimagines a new cultural and educational space on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., adjacent to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution and supported by a major gift from Jeff Bezos, the project is envisioned as a hub for learning, creativity, and public engagement around science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM).

The design creates a space that invites curiosity, exploration, and connection. With flexible classrooms, interactive exhibitions, and open public areas, the center is designed to support hands-on learning experiences while connecting visitors of all ages to ideas that shape the future.

Our approach reflects a deep connection to the surrounding landscape and the spirit of innovation rooted in the history of the site. The architecture aims to bridge past and future, creating a relationship between the legacy of the National Air and Space Museum and a new vision for how institutions can engage with education and public space.

Washington, USA

Bezos Learning Center

Universe is an immersive installation by Ma Yansong, created for the Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. Installed inside a former silo, the work uses light, reflection, and sound to explore the relationship between space, perception, and cosmology.

Inspired by an ancient philosophy, the concept draws from the idea of a formless “void” or Hundun a space of silence and motion from which all things originate. Unlike Western interpretations of the cosmos, this view sees the universe as a reflection of inner consciousness. The installation builds on this idea, framing the vastness of the cosmos as something deeply personal and introspective.

Inside the silo, suspended spherical lights shift unpredictably, mimicking stars and nebulae. Red mirrored panels reflect the moving lights, creating a sense of infinite extension and spatial uncertainty. A specially composed ambient soundtrack adds another layer, guiding visitors through a contemplative experience that merges the external environment with inner thought.

Universe invited visitors to step away from daily distractions and engage with the unknown. It offers a brief moment of reflection within the city, where curiosity and imagination become central to experiencing space.

The installation was recognized with the Best Artwork award by both the Public Vote and the Academic Committee at the Biennale.

Shenzhen, China

Exhibition

Yang Xuebing, Yoshio Fukumori, Niu Shaobo, Zhou Chenhao

DADI-FAÇADE

Ning Field Lighting Design

Mark Ma 

UABB Hu Kangyu

Universe

A Village Under the Dome is our proposal for the Zhuhai Cultural Arts Center, situated on the former site of Yinkeng Village, a historic settlement dating back to the Northern Song Dynasty. Rather than replacing the demolished village with a typical large-scale civic complex, we reimagined the site as a protected cultural landscape preserving the original village layout and memories while introducing new functions.

Instead of erasing the site’s history, we organized the center’s programs into small-scale, village-like buildings that follow the original street network and topography. These structures are unified under a translucent dome that floats above the village ruins, acting as both shelter and symbol. The dome is supported by a cable-membrane structure, remaining open at its base to encourage access from all directions and blend with the sky like a soft mist.

Key elements of Yinkeng Village, including its ancient banyan tree, pond, and plazas, are preserved and re-integrated into the civic space. The design prioritizes community, memory, and emotional connection, advocating for urban renewal that respects history.

By merging old and new, A Village Under the Dome reflects a civic architecture rooted in cultural continuity and human experience, offering an alternative vision for development in rapidly urbanizing cities.



Zhuhai, China

Adaptive Reuse

Zhuhai Cultural Arts Center

The design proposal starts with what is already given. The vibrancy of the natural topography is echoed and further magnified in the crater-shaped forms; therein lies the dialogue of the built and natural worlds, the mutual interplay of space and shape. The surface of the ‘mountains’ is a high-tech, eco-friendly pleated skin system. The smocking-like envelope provides air flow to the building while keeping energy consumption at a minimum by utilizing solar energy.

The core of the building is more an emotion construct: open courtyards in the interior create rhythmic patterns through the space and gesture back to the spatial order exemplified by the Forbidden City and ancient Chinese gardens. This project seeks meaning in its immaterial qualities, in spaces imbued with a sublime natural essence. For all its size, a single tree, a patch of bamboo, or a pond can become the central figures of the space, as they contribute to a meaningful experience for the user. It is sustainability in the sense of sustenance, in the nourishing potential of architecture to connect people to nature and to each other.


Taichung, China

Jordan Kanter, Jtravis Russett, Irmi Reiter, Diego Perez, Dai Pu, Rasmus Palmquist, Art Terry, Chie Fuyuki

Taichung Convention Center

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.
