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Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning (MoCAUP) has opened an exhibition which provides a retrospective of the research and practices of MAD Architects. Called Ma Yansong: Landscapes in Motion, the exhibition occupies an expansive space of more than 3,000sq m and takes visitors on a journey through 52 projects spanning almost two decades. MAD Architects is led by Ma Yansong, Dang Qun and Yosuke Hayano. The exhibition is [more...]

Designs have been revealed for a flexible, multi-purpose events centre which will have the appearance of a "cloud floating by the sea". Designed by MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong, the “Cloud Center” in Qinhuangdao, China, will offer a new multi-purpose public space for Aranya – one of China’s most vibrant seaside arts and culture communities. Situated close to the scenic Beidaihe coastline in the north east of the country, [more...]

MAD Architects are in the third and final stage of construction for the Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center mixed-use development in Nanjing, China, with completion due this year. According to MAD, "The scheme seeks to restore the spiritual harmony between humanity and nature through the integration of contemplative spaces that, while immersing inhabitants in nature, still meets the conveniences of modern-day living." Covering 560,000sq m (6 million sq ft), the vast [more...]

MAD Architects have inserted a number of organically-shaped bubbles into the fabric of Beijing's Qianmen district to provide new space, new use cases and incentives for younger generations to return to the area. The Hutong Bubble 218 project sees organically-shaped interstitial interventions inserted into the restrictive context of a former hospital on a hutong – a narrow street or alley. The hospital had already been converted into accommodation for around [more...]

MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong, have been chosen to build their ethereal design for the Yiwu Grand Theater in China’s Zhejiang province. The announcement comes following a competition with Arata Isozaki & Associates, Atelier Christian de Portzamparc, GMP, and KDG. The new building, located on the south bank of the Dongyang River, will have a 1,600-seat grand theatre, a 1,200-seat theatre and an international, 2,000-capacity conference centre. Positioned with [more...]

MAD Architects' Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Centre (NZHC) – a mixed-use development inspired by the highest mountain range in the world – is on track for completion in 2020. First conceived in 2012, the 560,000 sq m complex – which is located in Nanjing, China – was designed to represent what MAD have described as the Chinese concept of "shanshui", a merging of "humanity and nature". Once complete, the property will [more...]

Chinese starchitects MAD have released images of their newest project – a spiral staircase and observation deck in Rotterdam. Set to rise in the city’s historic Katendrecht peninsula, once the site of one of Europe’s oldest Chinatowns, the structure will be built as an extension of Rotterdam's Fenix Warehouse II, which is currently being transformed into a migration history museum. In a statement, the Netherlands-based Droom en Daad Foundation – [more...]

Construction has commenced on the Quzhou Sports Campus, an ambitious project which is designed to resemble a craterous landscape not unlike the conical puys of France's Massif Central. Helmed by Beijing-based MAD Architects and based in China’s Zhejiang province, the sprawling, 700,000sq m (7.5 million sq ft) complex will function as a kind of mini-city and feature a 30,000-seat stadium, hotels, youth centres, retail shops, museums, a gym, and a [more...]

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Herzog and de Meuron, Neri & Hu, MAD Architects and Elemental, the firm of Pritzker winner Alejandro Aravena, are among the star names who have collaborated with Italian lighting specialist Artemide for its latest collection. Aravena’s team created two products for the range – an outdoor light called ‘O’ and an electronic ‘celestial LED sphere’ called ‘Huara’. Explaining the former, a motion-tracking disc-shaped light, the architect [more...]

An innovative two-tower design – consisting of vertically networked platforms, terraces and verandas – has been selected winner of an AU$2bn (US$1.4bn, €1.3bn, £1.1bn) competition for a new mixed-use tower on Melbourne's Southbank in Australia. ‘Green Spine’, designed by architects UNStudio in conjunction with Cox Architects, takes the form of two curved towers that sit on top of a podium. The taller tower, standing at 356.2m, is wholly residential but houses [more...]

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 [more...]

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 [more...]

The new home of Hollywood Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise Los Angeles FC has officially opened in the city’s Exposition Park. Designed by architect Gensler, the 22,000 capacity Banc of California Stadium is the first new open-air stadium in LA since 1962 and has also been LEED silver certified for its sustainable design features. Ground was broken on the US$350m (€289m, £251.5m) project in August 2016 on a site once [more...]

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 [more...]

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 [more...]

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 [more...]

One of Paris’ most controversial buildings is set to undergo a green-tinged transformation, with three architecture studios joining forces to comprehensively renovate the Tour Montparnasse skyscraper. The monolithic glass and steel building, which climbs 209m (685.6ft) into the sky, provoked a public outcry when it was completed in 1973 and is widely considered to be out of place in the city’s urban landscape. The negative reaction was so strong, the [more...]

Designers and gallerists from around the world have travelled to Basel, Switzerland for the 2017 edition of Design Miami/Basel trade fair. Collectors, curators and critics will join them for the event, in which exhibitions of twentieth and twenty-first century furniture, lighting, jewellery and modern art are showcased alongside lectures and seminars on “the global language of design.” This year 47 galleries representing 11 countries are participating from 13-18 June; unveiling [more...]

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 [more...]