MAD Architects releases their first monograph “MAD Works” published by Phaidon
The skylines of modern China are punctuated by architecture that amazes, inspires, and awes. Many of these towering and billowing structures are the work of the Beijing-based experimental practice MAD Architects. This fall, Phaidon is publishing MAD Works MAD Architects, the first complete overview of the most important contemporary architecture practice to have emerged from China in the past 15 years.
MAD Architects is a global architecture firm developing futuristic, organic, and technologically advanced designs that also embody a contemporary interpretation of the Eastern affinity for nature. MAD’s vision is to create a future that meets the spiritual and emotional needs of residents, striking a balance between humanity and the built environment.
“People often ask what MAD stands for; sometimes, I explain it stands for MA Design, but I like MAD (adjective) Architects better. 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.” Ma Yansong, except from MAD Works
Globally recognized as a creative pioneer, founding principal architect Ma Yansong is a central figure in the worldwide dialogue on the future of architecture. The firm’s global presence is unparalleled, especially for a Chinese architecture practice, with projects completed in China, Canada, and Japan, in addition to on-going international projects located in Italy, France, Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, and the United States. MAD Works not only documents the finished buildings of this international avant-garde architectural firm, but also traces the development of their ideas through associated practice including art, research, and exhibition projects.
MAD Works is illustrated with 300 photographs, architectural drawings, and 3D renderings that provide a thorough exploration of MAD’s international portfolio of completed works, unbuilt projects, and future ideas. The book features a significant range of buildings including museums, theaters, and residences, as well as commissioned designs for urban planning, urban complexes, and old neighborhood renovations. In 2014, MAD was selected as the principal design architect for the George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA), becoming the first China-based architecture firm to design an overseas cultural institution.
Organized thematically, this comprehensive architectural monograph explores the underlying concepts of MAD’s architectural works. MAD Works is divided into five chapters based on a series of creative concepts that reveal Yansong’s attitude toward architecture. Named after his five art pieces—Fish Tank, Ink Ice, Feelings are Facts, Shanshui City, and Beijing 2050—the chapters operate as points of departure and inspiration for his subsequent architectural works. These five concepts categorize and organize the 28 featured works.
“Whatever happened to the avant-garde? 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.” – Sir Peter Cook, except from the foreword,
Including a foreword by Sir Peter Cook, founder of Archigram, and an interview by Aric Chen, curator of art and design for M+, the new museum for visual culture in Hong Kong, MAD Works is a visually stimulating and in-depth monograph that catalogues the diverse and awe-inspiring works of not only one of the most dynamic contemporary architecture firms to emerge from China, but from the world.
MAD Works MAD Architects
By Ma Yansong
Pub Date: October 17, 2016
Price: $79.95 US/$105.00 CAN
Binding: Hardback
Extent: 240 pages
Illustrations: 250 color
50 black and white
ISBN: 978 0 7148 7196 7
Size: 11 ? x 9 ? inches
Available: phaidon.com/madworks