'MAD works' by ma yansong documents the firm's projects

chinese architect ma yansong has released ‘MAD works’, a monograph documenting MAD architects’ most important projects to date. the book includes a significant range of buildings, from the completed harbin opera house, to planned developments such as a sinuous residential building in paris, and a hillside village in beverly hills. the publication serves as the first complete overview of one of the most important architecture practices to emerge from china in the past 15 years.

harbin opera house, china, 2015

released by phaidon, ‘MAD works’ is organized thematically and is divided into five chapters. each section is based on a series of creative concepts that reveal MAD’s attitude toward architecture. named after ma yansong’s five art pieces — fish tank, ink ice, feelings are facts, shanshui city, and beijing 2050 — the chapters serve as points of departure and inspiration for the 28 presented projects.

read more about the project on designboom here
image © hufton + crow

the book features 300 photographs, architectural drawings, and renderings that explore MAD’s international portfolio of completed works, unbuilt projects, and future concepts. the publication also includes a foreword penned by archigram founder sir peter cook, and an interview with aric chen — curator of art and design for M+, hong kong’s new museum for visual culture.

absolute towers, canada, 2012

‘whatever happened to the avant-garde?‘, questions peter cook in the book’s forward. ‘it was a very useful term 100, 70 or maybe 40 years ago for it covered the notions of newness, wit, inspiration, originality. yet now we are hesitant to reinvent the term: are we thus feebly eschewing the value of the new, the witty, the original, the daring? if only we can concoct this new word we surely then have an appropriate tag for ma yansong who can be all these things.‘

read more about the project on designboom here
image © iwan baan

‘people often ask what MAD stands for; sometimes, I explain it stands for MA design, but I like MAD (adjective) architects better,’ says ma yansong in ‘MAD works’. ‘it sounds like a group of architects with an attitude towards design and practice. I think it is important to practice architecture with an attitude, to be critical and sensitive to the issues and challenges in our world.’

see designboom’s ongoing coverage of MAD’s work here.

fake hills, china, ongoing