Some of the world’s most renowned architectural practices have submitted entries to a design competition for a new building in Melbourne, Australia. Situated in the city’s Southbank area, the new building will be a mixed-use tower development. Six entrants, including Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), MAD Architects, Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and MVRDV have submitted entries. BIG, in partnership with Fender Katsalidis Architects, are proposing a mega 359.6m-high two-building development

The first US project undertaken by Mad Architects, Los Angeles’s Gardenhouse, has topped out and is expected to complete by the end of 2018, according to the architect. The project, which has been wrapped in one of the largest outdoor living walls in the US, is aiming to bring “the natural flora found in the adjacent foothills of Los Angeles into the city of Beverly Hills”. The design rises out

Chinese practice MAD Architects have completed their latest urban-scale “expansion of nature” – a vast residential, commercial and leisure complex in Beijing that brings mountainous man-made towers into the heart of the city. The 220,000sq m (2.3 million sq ft) Chaoyang Park Plaza is formed of 10 organically shaped buildings, each with smooth curved surfaces of black and white. It was conceived as an extension of the park – the

The Los Angeles Planning Commission has officially approved on Star Wars creator George Lucas’ plans to build the long-gestating Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Exposition Park. The decision was finalised yesterday (11 May), according to news service NBC Los Angeles. New renderings and information released by Lucas and MAD Architects, who have designed the spacecraft-like museum, reveal the latest iteration of the green lit project. The museum will have

Young architects from around the world will have an opportunity to travel to China to undertake a research project under the guidance of Ma Yansong, the founder of MAD Architects. The studio has launched the 2017 MAD Travel Fellowship, which will be fund five international undergraduate or graduate architecture students to travel to China, and five Chinese architecture students to travel abroad. The fellowship was initiated by Ma in 2009

MAD Architects have unveiled an ambitious plan to reinvigorate seven of Milan’s abandoned and dilapidated railyards into a series of interlinked green parks and new leisure communities. Extensive landscaping runs throughout the project, while new residential, commercial and public developments will be “grafted into the landscape” in the form of MAD’s trademark organic nature-like structures. The railyards will be collated into three main villages formed around a repurposed freight warehouse.

George Lucas’s long-held dream to build a museum celebrating the art of storytelling may finally come to fruition, with the Hollywood director closing in on an agreement to construct the complex in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park. The long-running saga – which has seen the project beset by legal battles and location changes – took a surprising twist last month when Lucas unveiled alternative designs for the museum in LA and

In a saga beginning to rival his Star Wars franchise for length and drama, George Lucas appears to have finally sealed the deal to develop his Museum of Narrative Art following almost two years of legal disputes. The well-known director is now set to select a location for the venue in either San Francisco or Los Angeles (both in California), after snubbing Chicago, Illinois. According to The San Francisco Chronicle,

Conservatism should not be allowed to stifle the creation of beautiful and boundary-pushing buildings, according to MAD Architects principal Ma Yansong. “We should always be talking about the shape of the buildings around us, and the buildings around us should be more elegant,” he argued in an exclusive interview with CLADmag. “Some people say that the space you create [inside a building] is the most vital part of the architectural

Ma Yansong and MAD Architects have unveiled their design for a brand new China Philharmonic Hall in Beijing. Located in the bustling business district of Sanlitun next to the multipurpose Beijing Workers Stadium, the building will take the form of a curving 11,600sq m (125,000sq ft) structure covered by a translucent curtain facade. Lush trees and lotus ponds will be installed around the south side of the site in order

by Kim Megson | 10 Aug 2016

Construction is underway on the latest sculptural building designed by MAD Architects; a translucent, star-shaped design hub in the Chinese city Xiamen for fashion giant Xinhee. The building, called the Xinhee Design Center, will have a public atrium at its core with a footbridge used as a catwalk for fashion shows. From there, six long spanning structures will extend out in different directions – like petals growing from a central

by Kim Megson | 13 Apr 2016

Beijing-based innovators MAD Architects have designed a flowing, translucent installation for the 2016 Milan Design Week in the famous courtyard of the city’s university. The sculptural piece, called Invisible Border, forms a rippling canopy descending across the Cortile d’Onore courtyard from a loggia to the ground, establishing a shelter for people to gather, socialise and contemplate their surroundings. “Architects usually create borders by defining spaces – what is inside and

by Kim Megson | 12 Feb 2016

Pingtan Art Museum, a spectacular floating cultural island designed by Beijing-based innovators MAD Architects, has entered the construction phase in China’s Fujian province. Pingtan is the largest island in the region and has been designated by the government as a primary location for cultural and tourism development. The museum has been in development since 2011 and will be the cultural centrepiece of the zone. It will float in waters just

by Kim Megson | 17 Dec 2015

A striking, sinuous opera house designed by Beijing studio MAD Architects has opened in the northern Chinese city of Harbin. Located within the wetlands surrounding the Songhua River, the Harbin Opera House has been designed as a response to the region’s untamed wilderness and chilly climate. The building’s smooth white aluminium walls twist and turn as if sculpted by the water and wind, blending into the surrounding environment and transfusing