Tiffany Dahlen, graduated from School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, joined MAD in 2010. Demonstrating a high level of professionalism and efficiency, she has proven to be an excellent project manager. Leading competitions and built projects both in China and abroad, she has experience working on complex large-scale projects in dense urban conditions. Currently Tiffany leads the development of the Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, and has worked on a number of MAD’s iconic projects, such as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in LA, Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, Chaoyang Park Plaza in Beijing, Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, Huangshan Mountain Village in Huangshan, and Xinhee Design Center in Xiamen. She has also been involved in the realization of several MAD art projects, including: “Moon Landscape” for Swarovski and the “Vertu Mobile Pavilion”.

Los Angeles Office

Tiffany Dahlen, graduated from School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, joined MAD in 2010. Demonstrating a high level of professionalism and efficiency, she has proven to be an excellent project manager.  Leading competitions and built projects both in China and abroad, she has experience working on complex large-scale projects in dense urban conditions. Currently Tiffany leads the development of the Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, and has worked on a number of MAD’s iconic projects, such as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in LA, Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, Chaoyang Park Plaza in Beijing, Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, Huangshan Mountain Village in Huangshan, and Xinhee Design Center in Xiamen. She has also been involved in the realization of several MAD art projects, including: “Moon Landscape” for Swarovski and the “Vertu Mobile Pavilion”.

Being the largest island in the Fujian province, Pingtan is also the Chinese island nearest to Taiwan. In 2010, the 'Comprehensive Experimental Zone' project in Pingtan was officially launched; the island is expected to become the primary location for trade and cultural communication between Taiwan and the mainland in the foreseeable future. The island, which is currently home to fisheries and a military base, will quickly be transformed into a large-scale urban development zone.

This new city, which is still under planning, will hold the museum at its center. The museum itself acts as a smaller scale island off the Pingtan Island itself, connected to land only by a slightly undulating pier, which, in turn, bridges artificial and natural, city and culture, as well as history and future. The museum represents a long-lasting earthscape in water and is a symbol of the island in ancient times, with each island containing a mountain beneath it.

The island is firstly a public space that is then turned into a museum. The sea, the beach, the oasis and the slope all interconnect with each other, forming a harmonious capacious space with the mountains in the distance. The building is constructed with concrete that is blended with local sand shells. The indoor space, formed by the rise and fall of the formal movements, looks similar to ancient caves.

Pingtan Art Museum is built in a landscape setting of an urban city. After its completion, it will create a new space for the city and the city's inhabitants and further inspire them to reflect on the impact made by time and nature.



Pingtan, China

Culture

Zhao Wei, Huang Wei, Liu Jiansheng, Jei Kim, Li Jian, Li Guangchong, Alexandre Sadeghi

Pingtan Art Museum

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.


Beijing, China

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

“Clover House” is MAD’s first completed project in Japan. Clients Kentaro and Tamaki Nara would like to expand their school, and Clover House is where the clients’ school began as a humble operation from inside their family home. MAD proposed to retain aspects of the two-storey family home, and dynamically transform it into a fully developed educational institution.

The original wood structure are recycled and incorporated into the new design. Visibly present throughout the main learning area, a dynamic interior of translucent and enclosed spaces is formed to adapt to different teaching activities. Intimate spaces that create private and public in-between areas are formed, while windows are shaped in various geometries recognizable to the child’s eye, allowing sunlight to sift through and create an ever-changing play of shadows that encourage students’ curiosity and imagination. Clover House is constructed from a child’s point of view.

The new design’s skin wraps the old wooden structure like a piece of cloth, creating a blurry space between the new and the old – a pure white canvas of individuality that resembles a magical cave or a pop-up fort.


Okazaki, Japan

Education

Clover House

Ma Yansong: Landscapes in Motion is MAD’s first solo architecture exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art & Urban Planning (MoCAUP) in Shenzhen. As the largest and most comprehensive presentation of MAD’s work since its founding in 2004, the exhibition offers a detailed look into the studio’s evolving design philosophy through a curated selection of models, sketches, construction documentation, and multimedia archives many shown publicly for the first time.

Divided into four sections Dialogue, Progress, Feelings are Facts, and Rhapsody the exhibition explores the intersection of architecture, emotion, and urban life. It begins with over 180 questions posed by MAD, addressing topics such as urban development, social equity, and the role of design in shaping human experience. These questions frame the exhibition and invite visitors to reflect and engage critically.

The projects on display range from civic landmarks like the Harbin Opera House and FENIX Museum of Migration to speculative works such as Beijing 2050. Built and unbuilt, architecture and land art, the works collectively express MAD’s focus on creating emotional and spatial connections between people, cities, and nature.

Landscapes in Motion is not only a retrospective of built projects but also a conceptual inquiry into the future of architecture. It asks how cities can be more humane, responsive, and imaginative in the face of rapid urban change.


Shenzhen, China

Exhibition

Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Tourism, Radio & Television, Planning and Natural Resources Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality 

Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning 

Shenzhen Futian District Bureau of Culture, Broadcasting, Tourism, and Sports 

Yan Weixin 

Yang Kun, Fiona Qi Ziying 

Zheng Chengwen, Xue Teng, Cao Chen, Huang Juntao, Tan Miao, Miao Fangyi, Shang Li, Zhang Zhonglin, Li Leyuan 

Li Ran, Zhu Yuanlong, Cai Yixuan, Zhiyue (Joe) Ma 

Zhou Ning, Zhang Wenqiao 

Sun Baoping, Liang Jinwei 

Yan Yulan, Zhang Yun, Li Xiaoyu, Zhang Junrong, Liao Danyu, Xue Xintian, Cheng Yan

Sylvie Lyu, Jiang Kuo, Yu Qiannan 

Tammy Xie, Liu Danyang, Ji Ruixue, Maison Tydon Communications

GUOJIAO 1573 

Northglass, Unilumin 

YIHUIDA, BSST, OKAJIMA

QZY Models, JYD Models

One Thousand Times 

Top Space (China) International Trade Co., Ltd 

RDesign lnternation Lighting 

Shanghai Folighting Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd 

Baiqiang Fotoshop Co., Ltd

Social Archive of Chinese Photography (SACP)

TAL+Bai Yu, POSITION, ZHOMOMO, Hu Yizi, Wang Xiaotian, Mart Veda

Landscapes In Motion

Hutong Bubble 218 is the second small-scale intervention in Beijing’s historic neighborhoods. Located in Qianmen East, near the Forbidden City, the project restores and transforms a Qing Dynasty courtyard house as part of the Old City Renewal Research Program.

The site once housed Beijing’s first international hospital and later served as communal housing. Years of unregulated modifications led to severe structural decline and vacancy. We preserved the courtyard’s historic gray brick structure and restored original wooden elements while introducing futuristic sculptural additions called “bubbles.”

The mirrored bubbles, one connecting floors as a staircase and shared workspace, and another perched on the rooftop, contrast the old architecture while blending into the surroundings by reflecting sky, trees, and buildings. These surreal additions serve new functions while maintaining harmony with the courtyard’s original character.

“Hutong Bubble 218” continues MAD’s vision from Beijing 2050 a proposal to inject life into aging urban fabric through micro-scale architectural interventions. Rather than erase history, the design encourages coexistence between old and new, revitalizing neglected areas with fresh energy and community potential.


Adaptive Reuse

Hutong Bubble 218

In Feelings are facts (2010), Olafur Eliasson and Ma Yansong challenge our everyday patterns of spatial orientation. Vision functions as our primary, default sense for navigation, but this expansive installation induces initial insecurity in its visitors by radically reducing visibility, thereby suggesting the need to invent new models for perception. Basing this project on a series of previous experiments with atmospheric density, Eliasson introduces condensed banks of artificially produced fog into the gallery, whose dimensions have been further altered by substantially lowering the ceiling and constructing an inclined wooden floor. Hundreds of fluorescent lights are installed in the ceiling as a grid of red, green, and blue zones. By permeating the fog, these lights create coloured walk-through spaces that, in Eliasson's words, function to "make the volume of the space explicit." The coloured zones introduce a scale of measurement in the gallery, their varying size and organization referencing urban planning grids. At each colour boundary, two hues blend to create transitional slivers of cyan, magenta, and yellow. Walking through the dense, illuminated atmosphere, visitors can navigate by using this intuitive colour atlas. Another means of navigation is the floor construction. Whereas movement on a plane sur face can be effortlessly accomplished, the sloping floor challenges visitors to readjust their balance, constantly having to shift their weight and body posture to counterbalance the inclination. This fact emphasizes the crucial role of the moving body in our perception of our surroundings. The further visitors venture into the space, the steeper the floor gets, until the point where it becomes a wave-like curved wall. Since the ceiling imitates this construction, a seemingly boundless space is discerned above.

Olafur Eliasson


Space and light bring life into existence. There is no space, unless given light and boundary. Space has never existed, but rather exists only in the specific feelings it induces. Space in reality, exists only in sensuality. With expanding desire, everything is managed with utmost efficiency. Our feelings and sensibilities are seeing facts in the context of habituated life. Not until shutting our eyes, can we feel the world from within, space and light will touch your soul.

Ma Yansong

Installation 

Jérôme Sans, Guo Xiaoyan

Olafur Eliasson & Ma Yansong—Feelings are facts

Influenced by Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, MAD envisioned a mysterious abstract form capable of fostering an alternate, timeless development of Chinese tradition and future. Whilst the surface of this shape functions as a metal container critical to protect the interior from the harsh winters and frequent sand storms of the region, metaphorically this external layer operates as a shield protecting the precious culture and history of the city from the unknown growth of the city. The museum appears to float over a waving sand hill, a gesture saluting the landscapes which have now been supplanted by the streets and buildings of the new cityscape. This plaza is now a favorite amongst the locals who gather their families and friends to explore, play or lounge in the pleasant landscape.

Entering the museum presents visitors with a strong contrast to the exterior: an airy monumental cave flushed with natural light through skylights. The cave links to a canyon which carves out a void between the galleries and exhibition hall and is brightly illuminated at the top. Patrons maneuver along the base of these primitive surroundings and through the light across mid-air tectonic bridges, reminiscent of the intersection of the past and the future of the Gobi landscape. Visitors will repeatedly cross these sky bridges and reflect upon their journey from a variety of picturesque vantages. The local community, as well, is encouraged to pass through the base of the central canyon which connects the two public entries at opposite ends without entering the exhibition hall or galleries. The varying internalized flows of circulation are guided by a succession of light and shadow, at times mysteriously shaded and occasionally brilliantly bright yet consistently engaging. For the museum employees, a south facing, naturally lit interior garden is shared by the office and research programmes of the museum, creating a natural work environment.

The completion of the museum has provided the local citizens a place to embrace and reflect upon the fast paced development of their city. People meet organically in the naturalistic landscapes of the museum, an intersection of natural and human development.


Ordos, China

Shang Li, Andrew C. Bryant, Howard Jiho Kim, Matthias Helmreich, Xiang Ling, Linda Stannieder, Zheng Tao, Qin Lichao, Sun Jieming, Yin Zhao, Du Zhijian, Yuan Zhongwei, Yuan Ta, Xie Xinyu, Liu Weiwei, Felipe Escudero, Sophia Tang, Diego Perez, Art Terry, J Travis Russett, Dustin Harris

China Institute of Building Standard Design & Research

The Institute of Shanxi Architectural Design and Research

SuP Ingenieure GmbH, Melendez & Dickinson Architects

Huhehaote construction Co., Ltd

Zhuhai King Glass Engineering CO.LTD

Ordos Museum

Urban Forest is a high-rise tower for Chongqing, China’s youngest megacity. The project challenges conventional ideas of sustainability by reintroducing nature into dense urban environments, aiming to restore a sense of emotional connection to the natural world.
Inspired by Chongqing’s mountainous terrain and traditional Chinese philosophy, the tower mimics layered hillsides. Its staggered floors host sky gardens, open terraces, and green patios, creating multidimensional spaces for gathering, rest, and reflection. Instead of focusing on vertical power or high-tech systems, the design emphasizes harmony between people, architecture, and nature.

The building appears to dissolve into its environment, shaped by wind, light, and air. Its form breaks from the rigid verticality of traditional towers, offering a softer, more organic presence within the city.


Chongqing, China

Mixed Use

Urban Forest Chonqing