A Look At 10 Years Of MAD Architects With 10 Incredible Buildings

This October marks the 10th anniversary of MAD Architecture and of the increasingly innovative designs of its lead architect, Ma Yansong. To commemorate the event, MAD is publishing Shanshui City, a chronicle of the trajectory of Ma's life work and a meditation on the architect's philosophical vision for the future of urban life. The book, which Hans Ulrich Obrist calls a "manifesto for a new global vernacular," is scheduled to release internationally in late October. In honor of Ma's book and of MAD's anniversary, an accompanying exhibition at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) opened for Beijing's International Design week and will run until October 7th.

As a tribute to 10 years of Ma Yansong's innovative work, we've compiled a list of 10 awe-inspiring buildings from MAD Architects:

1) Hongluo Clubhouse, North Beijing, China

Opened in 2006, Hongluo Clubhouse serves as the perfect starting point for a decade of MAD designs. Inspired by the vicinity's alpine ambience, the Clubhouse (also pictured above) was designed to be an organic extension of Hungluo Lake, upon which it floats. The outdoor sunken gardens and swimming pools act as a continuity of the surrounding nature, while the open hallways of the inner space stand in opposition to cluttered furniture and maximalist aesthetics.

2) Absolute Towers, Mississauga, Canada

"They asked me why I made my design so sexy," Ma told The Creators Project in 2012, in regard to his "Marilyn Monroe" Towers in Mississauga, Canada. "I said, 'I never thought about it that way.'" Nevertheless, there's something undeniably attractive about Ma's Absolute Towers. The two structures wind their ways above the Southern Ontario city, stretching up to 558 and 492 feet, respectively, with sensual hourglass curves. Since their construction in 2012, Absolute Towers have gained landmark status and continue to provide Mississauga residents, as MAD foresaw, with "an emotional connection to their hometown."

3) Pingtan Museum, Pingtan, China

While still in the fundamental stages of development, MAD's third museum design hopes to emerge as the largest private museum in Asia. Accessible via an undulating pier, jutting off from Pingtan's shores, the building emulates an island's natural formation and movement, in Ma's characteristic Shanshui style.

4) Ordos Museum, Ordos, China

MAD describes Ordos Museum, the metallic, curvilinear building in the city center of Ordos, as a symbolic image of the "ever rising sun on the grassland." Completed in 2011 and inspired by Fuller's Manhattan Dome, Inner Mongolia's "nucleus" of culture strikes a drastic contrast with the rest of the city—a grid of linear "urban prematurity." Beneath its glazed roof, however, Ordos Museum proposes the same humanistic tenant of museums world-wide: a space for public life and cultural education.

5) Chaoyang Park Plaza, Beijing, China

In the central business district of bustling Beijing, Chaoyang Park Plaza marks one of MAD's first attempts at the realization of Ma's "Shanshui City," the concept from which his new book takes its name. Although the asymmetrical towers at the center of the plaza are unfinished, the project has already been awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certificate by the United States Green Building Council and upon completion, will undoubtedly join the ranks of the world's greenest buildings.

6) Huangshan Mountain Village, Huangshan, China

Evoking the topography the UNESCO Heritage site upon which it is built, Huangshan Mountain Village promises a residential experience which balances community with peaceful privacy. Balconies, walking paths, and refreshing scenery form the backbone of Ma's invitation to realize the possibilities of life outside of China's populous urban centers.

7) Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort, Zhejiang Province, China

MAD combines accommodation and entertainment in their Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort. Arcing 330 feet above Lake Tai, the resort's exterior sports layers of LEDs specially programmed to provide hotel guests and surrounding Zhejiang residents with nightly iridescent light shows.

8) Sinosteel International Plaza, Tianjin, China

"The design concept combines geometry, structure, and cultural symbolism as a repetitive motif: a hexagonal facade, multiplying, and evening across the building," said MAD about Tianjin's newest plaza. This hexagonal facade boasts an innovatively designed exoskeleton that renders internal columns unnecessary and provides the city with a breath of visual originality. Sinosteel's honeycomb towers are planned for completion in late 2014.

9) Vertu Pavillion

A jagged addition to Ma's typically rounded repertoire, Vertu's traveling pavilion is reminiscent of a recently crashed meteor, or a colossal piece of sharp, shining obsidian. The pavilion, which was first commissioned by phone company Vertu for the launch of their Constellation T touch-screen device, first opened in Milan but has since traveled to Shanghai, Dubai, Bejing, and London.

10) Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Chicago, Illinois (in development)

To round off our round-up is our most recently featured MAD design, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The designer for George Lucas's most recent project was announced earlier this year, to which Ma declared his excitement to work in a city "so rich with architectural history." The official design for the museum will be released to the public later this year, so we've provided this GIF of dancing Ewoks in the meantime.

Keep your eyes out for MAD’s book Shanshui City, which will be released in late October, and check out our short doc on the architect behind it all, Ma Yansong, below:

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