MAD Studio
An internationally active architecture and design practice led by Ma Yansong and known for organic, landscape-oriented buildings and urban concepts.
Last updated October 12, 2026
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Overview
MAD Studio, also known as MAD Architects or simply MAD, is an international architecture and design practice founded and led by Ma Yansong. The studio is associated with an approach that combines contemporary construction with ideas drawn from landscape, natural systems, Chinese spatial traditions, and speculative urbanism. Its work often seeks to soften the distinction between building and terrain, using curving forms, irregular silhouettes, planted terraces, internal voids, and public circulation routes to create architecture that appears integrated with its surroundings rather than isolated from them. The practice works across cultural, civic, residential, hospitality, commercial, educational, installation, and exhibition projects. Its portfolio includes the Harbin Opera House and Harbin Grand Theatre in China, the China Wood Sculpture Museum, Ordos Museum, Chaoyang Park Plaza, Absolute Towers in Canada, Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort, Gardenhouse in Beverly Hills, UNIC in Paris, 71 Via Boncompagni in Rome, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. The range of commissions shows a practice operating at several scales, from experimental installations and small architectural interventions to large mixed-use developments and major cultural institutions. MAD's design language is frequently linked to Ma Yansong's concept of the 'shanshui city,' a contemporary interpretation of the Chinese shanshui tradition in which architecture, landscape, water, mountains, and human experience are treated as interconnected. This idea appears in projects such as Fake Hills, Huangshan Mountain Village, Chaoyang Park Plaza, and the Harbin cultural buildings, although the studio's work also adapts to local contexts outside China. Its international commissions have required the practice to work with different planning systems, preservation environments, construction technologies, and cultural expectations. In addition to completed buildings, MAD has developed temporary installations, exhibitions, urban proposals, and research-oriented concepts. Projects such as Super Star: A Mobile China Town, Ink Ice, Fish Tank, Tunnel of Light, and Wormhole Library demonstrate the studio's interest in architecture as an experiential and cultural medium. Exhibitions in Europe, China, and other international venues have helped present its ideas beyond conventional building commissions. The studio is led by Ma Yansong with partners including Dang Qun and Yosuke Hayano. Publicly documented projects indicate an active international practice, with continuing work in the United States and China among other markets. Because the available reference material does not specify a legal corporate structure, annual revenue, employee count, official website, or current executive roster beyond the named leadership, those details are left unspecified.
History
MAD Studio emerged from the architectural practice of Ma Yansong and developed an international profile through projects that challenged conventional distinctions between architecture, landscape, and urban form. Rather than treating buildings as isolated objects, the studio's work commonly frames them as inhabited topographies, using flowing envelopes, planted surfaces, large openings, and dramatic interior voids to connect occupants with the surrounding environment. Among the practice's early and influential works were experimental installations and small-scale architectural studies. Fish Tank and Ink Ice explored the relationship between form, material, and perception, while Super Star: A Mobile China Town presented a mobile and speculative urban concept at the Venice Architecture Biennale. These projects helped establish the studio's interest in architecture as both a built discipline and a vehicle for social and cultural commentary. The studio subsequently expanded into cultural and institutional architecture. The Ordos Museum in Inner Mongolia, completed in 2011, used a protective, sculptural outer form to create a distinct civic landmark in a desert-edge setting. The China Wood Sculpture Museum, completed in 2012, similarly combined a strong external silhouette with a focus on local artistic production. The Harbin Opera House and related Harbin cultural projects became among MAD's most recognizable works. Their sweeping, eroded-looking forms respond to the surrounding landscape and climate while providing performance and public spaces within highly sculptural envelopes. Residential and hospitality commissions broadened the studio's geographic and commercial reach. Absolute Towers in Mississauga, Canada, became known for its twisting high-rise forms and balconies. Other projects, including Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort, Sanya Phoenix Island, Huangshan Mountain Village, Fake Hills, Baiziwan Social Housing, Gardenhouse, UNIC, and 71 Via Boncompagni, applied variations of the studio's organic and landscape-oriented vocabulary to high-rise, resort, housing, and urban redevelopment contexts. The practice's shanshui-oriented thinking became particularly visible in projects such as Chaoyang Park Plaza in Beijing. The complex combines office, residential, and public components with vertical planting, flowing profiles, and forms intended to evoke mountains and valleys. This approach represents MAD's effort to reinterpret Chinese landscape aesthetics for dense contemporary cities rather than reproduce historical architectural styles literally. MAD has also remained active in exhibitions and temporary work. Its projects and presentations have appeared at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Milan Design Week, the Danish Architecture Center, MAXXI in Rome, the ICO Museum in Madrid, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, and architecture and urban-design events in China and Europe. These exhibitions have presented themes including Chinese urban transformation, future cities, the relationship between modernity and tradition, and the studio's interpretation of shanshui as an urban design principle. Later projects extended the practice's international reach. The studio has worked on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, One River North in Denver, the National Art Museum of China project in Beijing, Shenzhen Bay Cultural Plaza, Jiaxing railway station, and Wormhole Library in Hainan. The reference material identifies some of these projects as ongoing or under construction, indicating that MAD remains an active practice with a portfolio spanning public architecture, real estate, transport-related facilities, and cultural institutions.
- 2021
Wormhole Library
[1]Wormhole Library in Hainan is listed as a 2021 project, extending the studio's interest in experiential public architecture.
- 2019
UNIC and 71 Via Boncompagni
[1]MAD's portfolio identifies UNIC in Paris and 71 Via Boncompagni in Rome as 2019 projects.
- 2017
Chaoyang Park Plaza and Huangshan Mountain Village
[1]Both projects are listed as 2017 works, applying MAD's landscape-oriented design approach to urban and hospitality contexts.
- 2015
Harbin Opera House
[1]The Harbin Opera House is listed as a 2015 project and is one of the studio's best-known cultural buildings.
- 2012
China Wood Sculpture Museum and Absolute Towers
[1]The China Wood Sculpture Museum in Harbin and Absolute Towers in Mississauga are listed among MAD's significant projects from 2012.
- 2011
Ordos Museum
[1]The Ordos Museum in China is listed as a significant MAD project completed in 2011.
- 2009
Hutong Bubble and Urban Forest
[1]MAD's portfolio records Hutong Bubble in Beijing and Urban Forest in Chongqing as projects from 2009.
- 2006
Ink Ice
[1]MAD presented Ink Ice as an art and installation project in Beijing.
- 2006
Super Star: A Mobile China Town
[1]The speculative mobile-city project was presented at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale and demonstrated the studio's interest in alternative urban forms.
- 2004
Fish Tank installation
[1]Fish Tank is identified among MAD's early art and installation projects, reflecting the studio's experimental interest in spatial perception and constructed environments.
Products and positioning
An internationally oriented architecture practice positioned around expressive, organic forms; the integration of architecture and landscape; and contemporary interpretations of Chinese spatial and cultural ideas.
Cultural architecture · 2015
Harbin Opera House
A major performing-arts project in Harbin, China, characterized by a sweeping, sculptural envelope and circulation spaces designed to connect the building with its surrounding landscape. It is among MAD's most prominent cultural commissions.
Museum architecture
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
An ongoing museum project in Los Angeles, United States. The commission reflects MAD's involvement in large-scale cultural architecture and its preference for buildings that operate as prominent public landscapes as well as enclosed institutions.
Mixed-use architecture · 2017
Chaoyang Park Plaza
A Beijing mixed-use development combining office, residential, and public components. Its vertical greenery, flowing façades, and mountain-like profiles express MAD's contemporary interpretation of landscape-based Chinese design ideas.
Residential architecture · 2012
Absolute Towers
A pair of residential towers in Mississauga, Canada, known for their twisting forms and continuous balconies. The project demonstrates how MAD translated its fluid architectural language into a high-rise residential format.
Museum architecture · 2011
Ordos Museum
A museum in Ordos, China, completed in 2011. Its protective and highly sculptural outer form creates a distinctive civic presence and reflects the studio's interest in buildings that respond to extreme or unusual landscapes.
Residential architecture · 2020
Gardenhouse
A residential project in Beverly Hills, California, completed in 2020. The project applies planted, landscape-like surfaces and an irregular massing strategy to a high-end urban housing development.
Hospitality and residential architecture · 2017
Huangshan Mountain Village
A 2017 project in Huangshan, China, combining architecture and mountain landscape. It is representative of MAD's effort to create buildings that appear embedded in, or continuous with, their natural setting.
Library architecture · 2021
Wormhole Library
A library project in Hainan, China, listed as a 2021 work. Its name and classification reflect MAD's continuing interest in highly experiential public spaces and unusual spatial sequences.
Installation and experiential architecture
Tunnel of Light
An experiential project in Tokamachi, Japan, using light and spatial enclosure as central design elements. It extends MAD's architectural practice into sensory and installation-oriented work.
Controversies
Sources3 sources
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