Salone del Mobile, one of the world’s leading international design and furnishing events, has kicked off in Milan, with more than 300,000 visitors from over 165 countries expected to visit before the show closes on 22 April. More than 2,000 exhibitors from the worlds of furniture, lighting technology and bathroom and kitchen design are presenting their products and innovations to potential buyers across more than 200,000sq m. Several brands are also celebrating their new collections

The official groundbreaking has taken place for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art – Star Wars creator George Lucas’ long-awaited cultural venture in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park. The 300,000sq ft (27,800sq m) museum will celebrate the art of visual storytelling – from comic art, paintings and illustrations to photography, filmmaking and drawings – with collection galleries, exhibition spaces and two theatres displaying original works of art, digital technologies and daily

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

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

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

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

The saga of George Lucas’ long-running attempt to build a Museum of Narrative Arts in the US has taken another surprising twist, with concept designs released for locations in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Star Wars creator has been trying to establish the museum – which will explore how imagery tells stories from illustration to comics and films – for several years. His ambition to build it on

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