MAD completes the 2,267-hectare Lishui Airport in China, set within the foothill valleys of Lishui’s ‘forest city,’ and defined by a vast silver-white roof that reads as a white-feathered bird poised for flight. The roof absorbs nearly 100 meters of elevation change and embeds the terminal into the surrounding mountains (see designboom’s previous coverage here).

The architectural language of the airport embodies a deep connection to its environment. A feather-like shell, composed of lightweight aluminum panels, is supported by 14 umbrella-shaped columns, inspiring a sense of lightness and flow. Extending 30 meters, a dramatic cantilever frames the entrance, creating a spacious and naturally illuminated concourse that welcomes travelers with openness.

all images courtesy of MAD

fluid, feather-like roof in harmony with contours of the land

MAD’s terraced design, shaped by leveling nearly 100 meters of elevation, organizes the terminal, parking, and office areas into descending platforms, respecting the natural contours of the land. A central skylight floods the interior of the Lishui Airport with natural light, while the silver-white roof features bold characteristics that embrace fluidity. Inside, wood-toned finishes and a ‘one-and-a-half-story’ layout create a human-scaled, efficient space. Passenger areas transition from 4.5 meters to 13 meters in height, offering options for intimacy and spaciousness, with the compact arrangement integrating arrival and departure zones for facilitated movement.

a feather-like roof, composed of lightweight aluminum panels

future expansion to accommodate up to five million passengers

A landscaped walkway connects the parking area with the terminal, enhancing accessibility and maintaining the airport’s dialogue with its natural surroundings. Lishui Airport is equipped with three boarding bridges, five remote stands, and an initial capacity to serve one million passengers annually. It is conceived as a domestic regional airport, prioritizing convenience and human-centered design over monumental scale. ‘As a feeder airport, Lishui Airport shows another attitude as a public transportation facility in the city: not greedy for big, but pursuing convenience and humanity, and pursuing a dialogue with the natural environment,’ Ma Yansong, founder of MAD explains.

Future expansion is embedded in the structure of the airport, anticipating growth to accommodate 1.8 million passengers by 2030 and up to five million by 2050. Provisions for an international terminal ensure that Lishui Airport can evolve alongside the development of the region.

the architectural language of the terminal embodies a deep connection to its environment

the roof is composed of lightweight aluminum panels

a dramatic cantilever frames the entrance

a spacious and naturally illuminated concourse that welcomes travelers with openness

a central skylight floods the interior of the Lishui Airport with natural light

wood-toned finishes create a human-scaled, efficient space

a landscaped walkway connects the parking area with the terminal

project info:

name: Lishui Airport

architect: MAD architects | @madarchitects

location: Lishui, Zhejiang Province, China

site area: 2,267 hectares

building area: 12,100 square meters

building height: 23.95 meters

principal partners in charge: MA Yansong, DANG Qun, Yosuke Hayano

associate partners in charge: LIU Huiying, Kin Li

design team: SUN Shouquan, ZHANG Xiaomei, LEI Lei, YANG Xuebin, SUN Mingze, YIN Jianfeng, Punnin Sukkasem, ZHU Yuhao, ZHANG Yaohui, Alan Rodríguez Carrillo, Pittayapa Suriyapee, WANG Xinyi

client: Lishui Airport Construction Headquarters

executive architects: CAAC NEW ERA AIRPORT DESIGN INSTITUTE COMPANY LIMITED 

facade consultant: RFR Shanghai

interior design/lighting consultant: Shanghai Xian Dai Architectural Decoration & Landscape Design Research Institute CO., Ltd

landscape consultant: Z’scape Landscape Planning and Design
photography: JK Wang, Liu Yongwei, Hello Lishui, MAD Architects
video: JK Wang

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Construction continues to surge ahead at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park, as the MAD-designed landmark prepares to open its doors in 2026. Envisioned by filmmaker George Lucas, who also serves as the museum’s curator, this futuristic civic space is shaped like a sculptural canopy, hovering lightly above a revitalized, pedestrian-friendly parkland. 

UPDATE November 13th, 2025: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art sets its public opening for September 22nd, 2026, debuting Ma Yansong’s futuristic building in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park. Co-founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the institution focuses on storytelling across classic illustration, muralism, comic art, science fiction imagery, and cinematic artifacts. Its 9290 square meters of galleries will draw from a collection of more than 40,000 works exploring themes such as love, family, community, childhood, and adventure. ‘Stories are mythology, and when illustrated, they help humans understand the mysteries of life,’ says George Lucas. Hobson adds that the museum seeks to be ‘a museum of the people’s art,’ reflecting visitors’ own experiences.

all images by LA TIMES – Chun Myung & Jason Armond, via MAD, unless stated otherwise

a floating landmark

Led by Ma Yansong, the team at MAD replaces right angles with fluid, organic geometries in the Lucas Museum’s design, shaping its sculptural form with over 1,500 uniquely molded fiberglass-reinforced polymer (FRP) panels. As it arches across the site with cloud-like massing and deep cantilevers, the building contrasts with its more conventional neighbors in Exposition Park. A 56-meter-long central archway spans a public plaza and forms the entry point of the museum, while above it, a four-story elliptical oculus cuts through the volume and gallery spaces, visually linking the park and sky.

In many ways, the Los Angeles museum seems to levitate, with its form touching the ground at just a few strategic points, allowing for openness and lightness despite its massive scale. This illusion of floating is engineered with seismic resilience in mind, with one meter of lateral space allowing it to ‘roll’ during an earthquake, what the former CEO of the museum, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, once described as ‘a giant roller skate’ built for the realities of LA’s tectonic landscape.

image courtesy of The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Mia Lehrer creates an urban public oasis

Surrounding the museum, landscape architect Mia Lehrer is transforming what was once a sea of parking lots into a shaded public oasis, planting over 200 trees and creating a green, walkable environment. This shift from car-dominant infrastructure to community-oriented parkland aligns with the museum’s broader mission to be a place for people, not just artifacts.

Inside, the programming reflects this same democratic spirit. Beyond galleries spanning 9290 square meters, the museum will house two state-of-the-art theaters, ten education studios, a library, a restaurant, a museum shop, and even a rooftop event space beneath its ribbed ‘cloud’ ceiling.

the MAD-designed landmark prepares to open its doors in 2026

storytelling across media drives the institution’s evolving vision

The Lucas Museum is built around the idea of storytelling as a global cultural force. The collection spans everything from Norman Rockwell’s illustrations to Frida Kahlo’s iconic work, alongside film models, props, and concept art from the Star Wars creator’s own archive. With this expansive approach to narrative art, the museum positions itself as a one-of-a-kind institution dedicated to visual storytelling across cultures and media.

Sandra Jackson-Dumont, who has been overseeing the museum’s development for the past five years, left her post in April 2025 following the introduction of a new organizational structure. The change splits the roles of director and CEO; Lucas steers the museum’s artistic content, while former Paramount and Fox CEO Jim Gianopulos serves as interim CEO.

As Los Angeles grows and reshapes its identity as a global center for arts and culture, the Lucas Museum wants to be an everyday destination in the heart of South LA, where people can gather, learn, and connect.

the building contrasts with its more conventional neighbors in Exposition Park

MAD replaces right angles with fluid, organic geometries

the building hovers lightly above a revitalized, pedestrian-friendly parkland

landscape architect Mia Lehrer is transforming what was once a sea of parking lots into a shaded public oasis

a green, walkable environment planted with over 200 trees

Mellody Hobson and George Lucas, 2025. © 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved | image by Deanna and Ed Templeton

project info:

project title: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art | @lucasmuseum

architecture: MAD architects | @madarchitects

location: Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California

previous coverage: March 2018, February 2020, September 2022, March 2024, March 2025

photography: © Roberto Gomez, Sand Hill Media/Eric Furie

MAD Architects team: Ma Yansong (founder, principal partner), Lu Junliang (Dixon) (associate partner), Lee Flora (associate partner)
architect of record: Stantec (Michael Siegel) | @stantec
landscape architect: Studio-MLA (Mia Lehrer) | @studio_mla
construction manager: JLL (Cory Langer, Dustin Worland)
general contractor: Hathaway Dinwiddie (Rick Cridland)
structural engineer: LERA
mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire life safety: Alfa Tech

MAD Architects partners: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano

competition and design team: Kin Li, Tiffany Dahlen, Daniel Weber, Jordan Kanter, Daniel Gillen, Wu Kaicong, Zhao Wei, Flora Lee, Jonathan Kontuly, Carmen Carrasco, Jacob Hu, Satoko Narishige, Zhu Yuhao, Casey Kell, Matthew Pugh, Kazushi Miyamoto, Ben Yuqiang, Hiroki Fujino, Chris Nolop, Kek Seow, Younjin Park, Brecht Van Acker, Andrea D’antrassi, Zhang Yiran, Pouya Goshayeshi, Dora Lam, Victor Tung, Steven Park Chaffer, Sean Tan, Sheenam Mujoo, Dookee Chung, Cesar D. Pena Del Rey, Valeria Pestereva, Wang Yiqi, Dmitry Seregin, Lin Yuyang, Che-hung Chien, Zhang Lu, Zeng Hao, Young Koo Kang, Shen Han

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The Shenzhen Bay Cultural Plaza, designed by MAD, is approaching completion in the city’s Houhai district. First unveiled in June 2020, the project has been documented through several phases of construction, with images released in February 2025 marking significant progress. MAD has now shared one final set of photographs by Zhu Yumeng ahead of the plaza’s expected opening later this year.

Designed as a public space between Shenzhen’s central business district and the bay, the development extends across 51,000 square meters. Its total built area of 188,000 square meters includes multiple exhibition halls, theaters, and public facilities. As construction concludes, the plaza will become a landmark of the larger Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, focusing on ecology, urban infrastructure, and public life.

images © Zhu Yumeng

mad’s green urban living room

From the outset, the architects at MAD emphasized the plaza’s role as a civic landscape. ‘Shenzhen Bay Culture Plaza should be a green urban living room that grows alongside the city’s development,’ notes lead designer Ma Yansong. The architecture merges public gathering areas with an expansive green roof that overlooks the city’s broader ecological network.

The plaza’s exhibition hall is embedded beneath rolling lawns, creating continuity with adjacent parks and green belts. Pedestrian bridges extend connections into surrounding neighborhoods and commercial districts, while the slopes and open courtyards above host walking paths, picnic areas, and spaces for informal social activity.

the program includes nine exhibition halls, a theater, a lecture hall, and an art collection library

Landform and Ecological Integration

By moving much of the program underground, MAD frames the surface as a landscape intervention rather than a conventional building. This approach is a reminder of Shenzhen Bay’s role as an ecological corridor along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, a habitat for migratory waterbirds. Planting strategies prioritize native vegetation, and a variety of tree species have been selected to enhance seasonal biodiversity while supporting avian feeding areas.

This new topography shifts with the seasons and offers shaded areas in summer and open clearings in winter. The landscape’s integration of ecological systems with public amenities means that the project stands as both a cultural space and a contributor to the bay’s environmental resilience.

the project was first unveiled in June 2020 and completion is expected by the end of 2025

Programmatic flexibility is a defining feature of MAD’s Shenzhen Bay Cultural Plaza. The central pool can be converted into an open-air theater for concerts or outdoor film screenings, and courtyards and green terraces provide platforms for markets, performances, and community events. A network of bicycle lanes and walking paths links the site to main city routes and extends its reach as an everyday, easy-to-access public amenity.

Visitors arriving from surrounding commercial centers will be able to cross directly into the rooftop park or descend into underground cultural spaces without encountering traffic.

The program includes the North Hall, South Hall, and Theme Hall, which together provide nine exhibition halls and approximately 50,000 square meters of display space. Additional facilities such as a 720-seat stone theater, a 330-seat lecture hall, and an art collection library contribute to the cultural program.

a main exhibition hall is enclosed by a green roof that connects to surrounding parks

the landscape integrates ecological restoration with public spaces

native vegetation and seasonal planting strategies support migratory bird habitats

outdoor spaces include terraces, courtyards, and a pool that can become an open-air theater

pedestrian bridges and cycling paths connect the plaza to city routes

name: Shenzhen Bay Cultural Plaza

architect: MAD | @madarchitects

location: Shenzhen, China

status: under construction

previous coverage: June 2020, February 2025

photography: © Zhu Yumeng | @yumeng_zhu_coppakstudio

area: approximately 51,000 square meters
gross construction area: 188,000 square meters

principal partners: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano

principal associate partners: Tiffany Dahlen, Li Jian

design team: Zhang Chao, Li Cunhao, Zhang Kai, Xu Shaohua, Ma Yiran, Li Hui, Yoshio Fukumori, Zhang Yaohui, Sun Feifei, Li Gang, Ning Tong, Haruka Tomoeda, Natawat Warotdulyavat, He Xin, Zhang Jiahao, Li Leyuan, Cao Xi, Maria Soledad, Sun Jingyi, Gan Mengjia, Wang Fei, Pan Jifu, Xu Tianyang, Tian Jin, Zou Dengyu, Yang Xuebing, Li Xinyun, Huang Jinkun, Lin Zihan, Jiang Linyun, Luis Torres, Neeraj Mahajan, Zhang Tong, Wang Yiwei, Wei Yunzhao, Raquel Valdes, Emma Sanson, Niu Shaobo, Huai Wei, Kenji Hada.

client: Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports
construction: Nanshan District Construction and Public Works Bureau

construction agent: China Resources Land (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.

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The Fenix Museum of Migration by MAD has now been open in Rotterdam for several months, establishing itself as an iconic civic landmark along the city’s industrial waterfront. Rising above the historic port district, the museum occupies a restored warehouse once tied to the flow of migrants who departed from Rotterdam for destinations across the world. Now, with newly captured images months after its opening in May 2025, the project can be understood as not just a renovation, but as an active and lived-in landmark shaped by visitors’ reflections and spiraling movement.

‘Everything is in motion — people, time, light, the sea,’ says Ma Yansong. ‘This building invites us to rethink moments of arrival and departure, and to reflect on the reasons we set out in the first place.’ That sense of continuity between past and present is what connects the sculptural building to its cultural and urban context. Before the museum opened to the public, the architects documented their design process through a film titled ‘Ma Yansong: Journey to Design the Fenix Tornado’ — watch it here!

the Fenix Museum of Migration is sited in Rotterdam’s historic port district | image © Hufton + Crow

a spiraling monument for convergence in rotterdam

At the heart of the Fenix Museum of Migration in Rotterdam, MAD’s tornado-shaped staircase has emerged as the defining element. Two spirals rise independently, crossing and separating before joining at platforms that overlook the coastal Dutch city.

MAD’s Ma Yansong describes the Fenix Museum’s configuration as ‘random yet precise,’ a system designed for fluid movement that creates chance encounters. The result lends a choreography of visitors’ movements, as the layout organizes spontaneous interactions and encourages both individual reflection and collective experience as visitors ascend the spiraling structure.

a ‘tornado’ staircase forms the centerpiece of the museum | image © Iwan Baan

mad’s Tornado Staircase as Civic Space

MAD’s adaptive reuse of the museum’s warehouse preserves the industrial shell, a memory of the surrounding neighborhood. This warehouse had been restored by Bureau Polderman, while MAD introduced interventions to alter its historic atmosphere. The opening of the central roof floods the interior with daylight to animate both the preserved concrete structure and the new stainless-steel spiral.

‘The shaping and shifting of global politics, geography, culture, and art are largely rooted in these migrations,’ Ma explains. ‘We hope this museum not only commemorates the past or tells stories of hardship, but more importantly, reveals hope and courage — offering inspiration for people today and in the future to look ahead.’

the spirals rise independently before meeting at shared platforms | image © Arch-Exist

Structurally, the spiraling staircase demonstrates a high level of engineering innovation. Measuring 550 meters in length and rising thirty meters high, it cantilevers outward up to seventeen meters at certain points, achieved through a spatial truss system developed with roller coaster specialists. Its reflective cladding, shaped with CNC technology, captures shifting skies, waterfront activity, and the movement of passersby.

The experience of climbing the stairs is never fixed. Perspectives shift with each step, encounters take place at the landings, and the view culminates in the rooftop platform where the city and river unfold as a broad horizon. The architects describe it as both a journey and a gathering place, where movement is transformed into architecture.

Inside, the collection includes historical artifacts and contemporary commissions, presented in an open plan that encourages visitors to move fluidly between past and present. Wim Pijbes, President of the Droom en Daad Foundation, emphasizes this universality: ‘At some point in life, people make the decision — whether due to war, poverty, faith, or other reasons — to pack everything they own into one or two suitcases and start over on the other side of the world. What we must do is understand those emotions and give them form.’

the reflective stainless steel surface mirrors light and movement | image © Arch-Exist

the restored warehouse structure contrasts with the new intervention | image © Hufton + Crow

the museum presents global migration stories through art and history | image © Arch-Exist

visitors ascend thirty meters to a rooftop platform overlooking Rotterdam | image © Hufton + Crow

6,750 square meters of green roof enhance insulation and water retention | image © Arch-Exist

project info:

name: Fenix Museum of Migration | @Fenix

architect: MAD | @madarchitects

location: Rotterdam, Netherlands


previous coverage: November 2018, November 2020, January 2025, May 2025

photography: © Arch-Exist, © Hufton + Crow, © Iwan Baan

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More than an installation, City of Plants is a research project that questions our relationship with nature in the urban realm. Presented at the Biennale Architettura 2025 and curated by Carlo Ratti, City of Plants is the result of a collaboration between Parcnouveau and MAD and explores new scenarios of coexistence among humans, plants, and artificial intelligences. In an era where cities are complex layers of materials, technologies, and living presences, the project proposes a paradigm shift: to rethink the landscape not as a static backdrop, but as a relational and dynamic system where people, nature, and AI coexist as active agents.

invited by Carlo Ratti, curator of the 19th Venice International Architecture Biennale, Ma Yansong presents City of Plants, an architectural installation by MAD | all images courtesy of MAD

CARLO RATTI CURATES ai-RESPONSIVE ECOSYSTEM 

The installation by MAD emerges from this investigation as a responsive ecosystem made up of three main elements: a base equipped with environmental sensors, three living micro-landscapes enclosed in transparent cases, and an immersive sound and light environment that constantly evolves. With the contribution of the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, electrodes capture the environmental conditions affecting the plants—humidity, temperature, light—and translate them into sound frequencies that compose a real-time musical landscape. At the same time, visitors’ movements are detected and interpreted by intelligent algorithms, generating an ever-changing dialogue between humans and the vegetal world.

In this shared space, natural and artificial intelligences converge to create a common language in which plants are no longer passive presences, but active interlocutors capable of expressing states, needs, and rhythms. The design combines advanced technologies of sensing and bio-interaction with a material and spatial presence that blurs the boundary between art, architecture, and landscape. Transparent domes, resting on organically shaped bases, host curated micro-forests: miniature self-regulating ecosystems that recall both autonomous and fragile worlds. Their futuristic, greenhouse-like appearance evokes landed spaceships, while the interplay between the engineered shell and the spontaneous vitality of the vegetation generates a subtle tension between architecture and nature.

City of Plants presents a vision of a future urban landscape where humans and nature coexist in harmony

CITY OF PLANTS IS AN INVITATION TO RETHINK LANDSCAPE 

Visitors are invited to touch, listen, and perceive, transforming the installation into a sensitive machine where the human body becomes part of the work. The historical backdrop of the Corderie dell’Arsenale, with its raw bricks and traces of time, contrasts with the smooth surfaces of the structures, producing a suspended atmosphere in which past and future intersect. Here, nature is not nostalgia, but a project of future cohabitation.

As Margherita Brianza, founder of Parcnouveau, affirms: ‘City of Plants is an invitation to rethink the role of landscape in contemporary cities—towards spaces that are not only efficient or optimized, but capable of hosting creative encounters between intelligences and generating harmony through complexity.’ On view inside the Corderie dell’Arsenale until November 23, 2025, City of Plants will continue to evolve through the passing days, seasons, and the relationships it will be able to activate.

City of Plants continuously monitors plant growth conditions in real time through environmental sensors

in this future city, the richness of human sensory experience within nature becomes the primary measure of urban quality

the installation is composed of a responsive base equipped with high-precision sensors, an integrated AV interaction system, and three connected ecological landscapes enclosed within dome-like structures

as visitors enter, sensors embedded in the floor detect the rhythm of their footsteps, which are also translated into sound through a custom algorithm

City of Plants is enclosed within a single dome that unifies the entire installationwith this project, MAD symbolizes both ecological conservation and a vision for a hopeful future

project info:

name: City of Plants

event: 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale Di Venezia
design: MAD | @madarchitects & Parcnouveau | @parcnouveau

principal partners: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano
design team: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano, Andrea D’Antrassi, Chiara Ciccarelli, Giuseppe Zaccaria, Evrim Ecem Saçmalı, Licia D’Antrassi, Giovanni Colombara, Fiona Ziying Qi, Alessandro Fisalli, Julian Salvadori
experience design and AI research: Bruno Zamborlin
landscape: Parcnouveau | @parcnouveau
lighting: Flux CS
bonsai specialist: Crespi
musical composer: Michele Tadini
visual artist: Proloog.tv
additional support: ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development), Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Logli Saint-Gobain

on view: May 10th — November 23rd, 2025

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At the 19th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, MAD presents Chinese Paper Umbrella, an outdoor installation at the China Pavilion that reflects the theme ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.’ The soft, splaying structure brings the delicate form of the traditional Chinese oil paper umbrella to architectural scale, transforming it into a performative pavilion that offers rest and shelter.

The work situates itself between ancient knowledge and contemporary experimentation. It provides a microclimate within the gardens of the China Pavilion, and a demonstration of how traditional materials can evolve when paired with environmental sensing and adaptive design strategies. In this way, the installation demonstrates MAD’s interest in the emotional and experiential qualities of space, and its broader efforts to humanize technological systems through architecture.

The project remains on view at the China Pavilion through November 23rd, 2025, as part of the Venice Architecture Biennale.

images courtesy MAD

ancient chinese craft arrives in venice

Positioned in the garden near the terminus of the Arsenale exhibition route, MAD’s Chinese Paper Umbrella is at once a sculptural intervention and a space for pause. The umbrella is constructed with Xuan paper — an absorbent, fibrous material traditionally used for calligraphy — treated with multiple layers of tung oil. This process renders it both water-resistant and translucent, enabling it to withstand the maritime conditions of Venice while filtering light in ever-changing ways.

Visitors stepping beneath the Beijing-based architects‘ canopy encounter a shift in atmosphere from the Biennale beyond. Light is softened, shadows stretch and contract with the time of day, and the sensation of temperature alters as air circulates through the permeable seams of the paper. The structure’s scale retains an intimacy, inviting individuals to linger, reflect, or simply observe the rhythms of weather and daylight as they pass through the space.

the project is installed in the garden of the China Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale

a paper umbrella with Responsive Technology

Beyond its material craftsmanship, MAD incorporates contemporary environmental technologies into its Chinese Paper Umbrella. A misting system embedded at the apex of the umbrella activates in response to high temperatures, cooling the shaded area beneath and subtly amplifying the sensory qualities of the space. The integration of OPPLE Lighting’s Smart Dynamic Light (SDL) system allows the canopy to adjust to changes in light and weather. This dynamic interplay between natural and artificial systems highlights the structure’s sensitivity to its environment.

The paper surface, though treated for durability, is designed to change with time. As sun, moisture, and wind weather the material, the umbrella will gradually yellow and soften. This slow transformation is not concealed, but rather embraced as part of the design. MAD’s intention is to foreground impermanence not as decay, but as a condition of coexistence with the natural world.

MAD draws from traditional Chinese oil paper umbrellas, scaled to create a public shelter

Xuan paper is coated with tung oil to produce a durable and translucent surface

smart lighting responds to environmental changes using OPPLE’s dynamic light technology

the umbrella structure breathes through its seams while maintaining shade and shelter

a misting system cools the air in response to high temperatures during dry weather

the pavilion creates a gentle shift in light, air, and temperature for visitors below

project info:

name: Chinese Paper Umbrella

architect: MAD | @madarchitects

event: 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale Di Venezia

location: Arsenale – Magazzino Delle Cisterne, Castello 2169/F, 30122 Venice, Italy

on view: May 10th — November 23rd, 2025

photography: courtesy MAD

design team: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano, Jiang Yunyao, Zhou Rui, Yang Xuebing, He Linxi, Huang Juntao, Pan Siyi, Valentina Olivieri
lighting partner: OPPLE Lighting
structural consultant: RFR Shanghai
fabrication: Far East Façade

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Through the images of Danica O. Kus, MAD’s Tornado staircase at the newly opened Fenix museum in Rotterdam emerges as a visual metaphor for movement, transformation, and memory. The photographer captures the double-helix form in a series of striking frames that reflect on migration as a physical and emotional journey. ‘I was inspired by its powerful visual metaphor for the continuous movement and transformation that define the experience of migration,’ Kus shares with designboom. Her perspective invites viewers to see the architecture as narrative, a story unfolding in steel and light.

Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, the Tornado crowns the Fenix museum, spiraling upward through a restored 1923 warehouse in Rotterdam’s Katendrecht district. It is the centerpiece of MAD’s first cultural building in Europe, realized as part of a wider regeneration of the city’s waterfront. ‘I saw this really big, heavy concrete building… it’s monumental,’ Ma Yansong tells designboom in our exclusive interview. ‘My first instinct was to do something vertical, so you can recognize this is something different.’ His solution, two self-supporting spirals, creates a fluid ascent that doubles as a symbolic act. ‘You almost see your reflection as yourself traveling through time, always reflecting, borrowing the color, the light from the surroundings.’

all images by Danica O. Kus

the double-helix staircase captures and transFORms light

Architectural photographer Danica O. Kus emphasizes the experience that the museum’s architect, Ma Yansong, describes. Her images focus on the sculptural presence of the Tornado, revealing how the spiraling form captures and transforms natural light as it rises 30 meters through the repurposed warehouse. Clad in 297 polished stainless-steel panels, the staircase bends and glows as people move through it, echoing the lives and stories the Fenix museum is designed to honor. At its peak, the Tornado opens onto a panoramic platform overlooking the city and harbor, a viewpoint crowned by a steel canopy. With each shot, Kus brings the architecture into motion, framing it as a breathing element of the space.

For Ma Yansong, the project was always about more than just architecture. ‘The Tornado is a metaphor about a journey… we are part of a big web of journeys,’ he reflects. ‘Once we realize that we are all interconnected, we will be able to embrace the different paths that make up our own.’

the photographer captures the double-helix form in a series of striking frames

a device for people’s movement

Located at the edge of Rotterdam’s Rijnhaven, the Fenix museum stands on a site with deep historical resonance. Once a point of departure for transatlantic emigration, the original structure served as a gateway for millions seeking new lives overseas. MAD’s intervention retains much of the industrial character of the 1923 warehouse, layering it with new meaning. The building hosts a dynamic cultural program centered on the global and personal dimensions of migration, combining archival material, contemporary installations, and immersive storytelling across multiple levels.

The design preserves the original concrete framework and vast open halls, embedding them with architectural gestures that invite exploration. A wide public passageway cuts through the ground floor, accessible without a ticket, while a curved mezzanine level carves out space for exhibitions and gatherings. Light animates the interiors, filtered through skylights, reflected off steel, and constantly shifting as visitors move through the space. For MAD, the project is less about making a statement and more about offering an environment that, in Ma Yansong’s words, becomes ‘a device for people’s movement and for meeting each other.’

reflecting on migration as a physical and emotional journey

a story unfolding in steel and light

the Tornado crowns the Fenix museum, spiraling upward through a restored 1923 warehouse

the centerpiece of MAD’s first cultural building in Europe

two self-supporting spirals create a fluid ascent

a metaphor for the experience of migration

the steel surface bends and glows as people move through it

Danica O. Kus focuses on the sculptural presence of the Tornado

a breathing element of the space

project info:

name: Fenix Museum of Migration | @Fenix

architect: MAD | @madarchitects

photographer: Danica O. Kus | @danica_o_kus_photography

location: Rotterdam, Netherlands


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Museums offer a singular way to experience architecture as a living record. Across the world, new cultural institutions and thoughtful transformations continue to shape how we engage with artwork, historical artifacts, and civic life. In this context, architecture becomes a means of orientation, framing memory and revealing histories. This year, major museum projects have been unveiled and completed. From subterranean expansions to open-air installations, the physical frameworks of these institutions reflect shifting curatorial values and public expectations. Some buildings stretch across city streets or rise from the forest floor, while others embed themselves carefully within existing heritage, expanding through deliberate restraint.

To celebrate International Museum Day, held on May 18th each year, designboom rounds up a selection of recently unveiled and anticipated museums. These projects move beyond the boundaries of the traditional gallery, inviting new modes of participation and perception. What emerges is a deeper consideration of structure and story — each museum offers its own response to the evolving role of architecture in public life.

The Frick Collection, New York, NY | image © Nicholas Venezia

Hungarian Natural History Museum

In Debrecen’s Great Forest, the Hungarian Natural History Museum designed by Bjarke Ingels Group with Vikár és Lukács Építész Stúdió, Museum Studio, and TYPSA rises from the ground in a trio of landscaped ribbons that weave through the trees. The mass timber structure is partially embedded into the terrain, its charred wood facade drawing material cues from the forest while supporting the ecological rhythms of the site.

Conceived as both architecture and landscape, the building folds together exhibition halls, public spaces, and research facilities in a continuous spatial flow, anchored by a central atrium and topped with native-planted green roofs. Viewed from above, the museum appears as an extension of the forest floor, its geometry clear but softened by its interaction with the natural surroundings. Passive design systems and on-site renewables help stabilize the interior climate, reinforcing a broader vision of cultural and environmental restoration.

Hungarian Natural History Museum, Debrecen, Hungary | visualization © BIG

FENIX MUSEUM OF MIGRATION

Fenix, the new museum of migration designed by MAD and led by architect Ma Yansong, has opened its doors within a transformed 1923 warehouse in Rotterdam’s Katendrecht district. The project anchors itself in a place once defined by departures, reimagining the monumental port structure as a civic space where personal histories and collective memory converge. At its core rises the Tornado, a spiraling double-helix staircase that cuts through the historic building and culminates in a rooftop observatory. This gesture of upward motion becomes a sculptural expression of passage, both physical and symbolic.

Inside, exhibitions unfold across immersive installations and contemporary artworks, interweaving photography, found objects, and oral histories to chart the human experiences of migration. At ground level, a freely accessible public plaza with food offerings and performances reflects the city’s multicultural spirit. For Ma Yansong, Fenix is at once an architectural milestone and a vessel for encounter and memory. It is an idea brought to life as visitors ascend through light, shadows, and shared stories.

Fenix Museum of Migration, Rotterdam, The Netherlands | image © designboom

Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum

In Shenzhen’s Guangming District, the newly opened Science & Technology Museum by Zaha Hadid Architects stands as a bold focal point at the edge of the city’s emerging Science Park. The spherical structure anchors the site with a deep blue stainless-steel skin that subtly shifts in color and reflects the sky. Terraces unfold to the west, connecting the building to the park and extending the experience of the galleries outdoors.

A vast central atrium serves as the spatial core, with exhibition spaces branching outward in layered, shifting planes that invite movement and exploration. The design merges civic architecture with sustainable ambition, incorporating passive ventilation, solar energy, and water recycling while using a digital twin to navigate its intricate geometry. Designed as a cultural and research hub, the museum brings together education and technology into a single fluid form.

Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum, Shenzhen, China | image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

the frick Collection

After nearly five years of renovation, The Frick Collection has reopened in New York with a renewed sense of architectural continuity, guided by Selldorf Architects in collaboration with Beyer Blinder Belle. The design navigates the delicate balance between preservation and intervention, with subtle alterations that honor the original 1914 Carrère and Hastings mansion while expanding its spatial and programmatic possibilities.

Key additions include the Ronald S. Lauder Exhibition Galleries, a subterranean auditorium, and public access to the residence’s second floor, where private rooms have been carefully restored. The architecture is thoughtful in tone and quiet in execution, from the oak floors to the glass-and-bronze bridge connecting the museum to the Frick Art Reference Library. With expanded facilities and newly integrated sightlines, the building deepens its role as both a cultural landmark and a site of ongoing scholarship.

The Frick Collection, New York, NY | image © Joseph Coscia Jr.

British Museum, Western Range galleries

Lina Ghotmeh—Architecture has been selected to lead the redesign of the Western Range galleries at London‘s British Museum, marking a defining chapter in the institution’s ongoing Masterplan. Known for her context-driven and materially sensitive approach, Ghotmeh proposes a reconfiguration that responds both to the museum’s architectural fabric and its layered historical collections. Her design draws from archaeological thinking, using excavation as metaphor and method, particularly in the reimagined space for the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.

The project, slated for completion in 2026, will unfold through a multidisciplinary collaboration with specialists in conservation, engineering, and curatorial practice. As a result, the Western Range will become a renewed site of encounter — architecturally measured and intellectually charged — where history is at once preserved and reinterpreted.

Western Range galleries at the British Museum, London, England | visualization courtesy Lina Ghotmeh

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

As construction on the David Geffen Galleries nears completion, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art prepares for a transformative chapter shaped by Peter Zumthor’s sweeping concrete design. Elevated above LA‘s Wilshire Boulevard, the new building stretches across both sides of the thoroughfare, reorienting the museum’s campus with a fluid, sculptural presence. 

Accessed by floating stairs and elevators, the structure will offer new public spaces, shaded plazas, and the East West Bank Commons beneath the elevated galleries. Educational and cultural programs will be anchored by the W.M. Keck Education Center and the Steve Tisch Theater, while large-scale works by Mariana Castillo Deball, Sarah Rosalena, and others will be embedded across the 3.5-acre landscape. The David Geffen Galleries will open to the public for the first time in April 2026 as LACMA’s entirely new home for its permanent collection. Meanwhile, the public will be able to begin exploring multiple features of and around the new David Geffen Galleries in summer 2025 including installations of outdoor sculptures, and special preview events.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California | image via @LACMA

TEAMLAB PHENOMENA

Set to open in April 2025 within Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District, teamLab Phenomena introduces a permanent space for immersive, interactive installations that evolve in real time. Conceived by the Tokyo-based art collective and designed in collaboration with MZ Architects, the 17,000-square-meter structure is shaped around teamLab’s philosophy of environmental phenomena, where artworks emerge through changing conditions of light, air, and water. The architecture facilitates a fluid relationship between visitor, artwork, and atmosphere, transforming each encounter into a distinct sensory event. As part of Abu Dhabi’s cultural vision, the venue invites open-ended exploration across art and technology while positioning itself as a catalyst for continuous discovery.

teamLab Phenomena, Abu Dhabi, UAE | visualization courtesy © teamLab

Museo Egizio, Gallery of the Kings

At Turin’s Museo Egizio, OMA has completed the renovation of the Gallery of the Kings as part of its broader reimagining of the institution, set for completion in 2025. Working with Andrea Tabocchini Architecture, the team transformed a once shadowed interior into a luminous sequence of vaulted halls, where natural and artificial light reflect off aluminum walls to heighten the presence of monumental statuary.

The design draws on ancient Egyptian associations between light and divinity, aligning spatial experience with curatorial intent. Visitors now enter through a darkened threshold before emerging into two galleries that restore the architectural clarity of the 17th-century building and stage the statues of Karnak in a newly choreographed order. The interplay of material and history offers a renewed encounter with the museum’s core collection, shaped by light and grounded in time.

Gallery of the Kings, Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy | image © Marco Cappelletti, courtesy OMA

The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain

During the 2025 Architecture Biennale, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain presents an exhibition by Jean Nouvel at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, offering a preview of the institution’s forthcoming transformation in Paris. Following his celebrated 1994 design for the glass-and-steel building on Boulevard Raspail, Nouvel now turns to a Haussmannian structure at Place du Palais-Royal, reimagining it as a dynamic exhibition space attuned to the needs of contemporary art.

In Venice, the exhibition traces this evolution through sectional models, large-scale imagery, and kinetic design elements such as movable ceilings and adjustable platforms that reflect the adaptable nature of the new venue. The architecture is presented in dialogue with its surroundings, with views of San Giorgio Maggiore reinforcing the show’s themes of spatial and cultural continuity. As the Fondation prepares to open its new Parisian home in autumn 2025, the exhibition foregrounds architecture as a living practice shaped by decades of collaboration.

The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain by Jean Nouvel, Venice, Italy | image © Jean Nouvel/ADAGP

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Los Angeles‘ Exposition Park is undergoing a significant transformation as the MAD Architects-designed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art continues to take shape. Spearheaded by filmmaker George Lucas, the curving volume is sculptural and complex as it rises from the ground in stark contrast to the traditional structures that surround it.

An important aspect of the overall masterplan is its commitment to creating a shaded, green oasis. Previously dominated by parking lots, the area will be reborn as a walkable, landscaped gathering place amongst the car-centric city. Over two-hundred new trees have already been planted on the site surrounding the museum, overseen by landscape architect Mia Lehrer, with a focus on native and drought-tolerant species. This transformation prioritizes people over cars, creating a much-needed green space for the community of South LA. The museum is set to open in 2026, with content direction led by George Lucas.

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, California | image courtesy Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

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A new exhibition at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion, debuts alongside the long-anticipated opening of the MAD-designed Fenix Museum of Migration. During the exhibition’s opening, designboom spoke with Aric Chen, General and Artistic Director of the Nieuwe Instituut and curator of the show.

‘With the opening of Fenix here in Rotterdam, it was a great chance to finally do an exhibition together,’ Chen tells designboom. ‘Ma and I have had quite a number of conversations, both formally and informally. I always felt like we needed to continue it. I was always left wanting more.’ This exhibition continues that dialogue, assembling MAD’s early speculations and recent large-scale works into a spatial and emotional journey.

images © Ossip van Duivenbode (unless otherwise stated)

Tracing Origins in a Rapidly Changing China

The Rotterdam exhibition Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion begins by anchoring MAD’s origin story in the formative years of independent architectural practice in China. ‘There were no private architecture firms allowed until the 1990s,’ explains Aric Chen of the Nieuwe Instituut. ‘Ma is part of that second generation of Chinese architects. It’s really remarkable to see how quickly things took off.’

A central installation expands upon MAD’s 2008 publication MAD Dinner, a document of creative gatherings the founders held during China’s early 2000s building boom. These interdisciplinary salons gave rise to speculative urban visions — a Tiananmen Square reimagined as a park, an aquarium seen through the perspective of a fish — which now appear in model form, offering insight into the studio’s earliest attempts to reframe public space and identity.

MAD opens its first solo museum exhibition in over a decade at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam

ma yansong’s Fenix as Cultural Anchor

Among the most anticipated works on view is MAD’s design for the Fenix Museum of Migration, the newly opened museum in Rotterdam dedicated to global migration stories. Fenix features the Tornado, a swirling, double-helix stair that lifts visitors through the atrium of a historic warehouse to a rooftop observatory. The Tornado connects the ground to the sky, but also history to the present.

It’s MAD’s first cultural building in Europe, and its role is deeply symbolic, especially given the museum’s context in Katendrecht, once one of the first Chinatowns of continental Europe. The exhibition offers detailed insight into the design of Fenix as a built manifestation of MAD’s evolving interest in architecture as a vessel for memory.

the exhibition coincides with the completion of MAD’s nearby Fenix Museum of Migration

MAD’s longstanding engagement with shanshui — the classical Chinese worldview in which landscape, city, and spirit cohere — remains a thread throughout the show. ‘Shan Shui painting was a big influence on Ma for a certain point,’ Chen continues. ‘The studio has since moved on, but the relevance of that is still really important for understanding the firm’s work today.’

Rather than presenting shanshui as a metaphor or motif, the exhibition shows how the philosophy permeates form-making, whether in the land-integrated design of Quzhou Sports Park or in the undulating mass of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

Aric Chen curates the exhibition to reflect two decades of MAD’s emotionally-driven architecture

The exhibition’s title, Architecture and Emotion, invites viewers to consider architecture as more than a functional or aesthetic exercise. ‘Emotion is not something that we, here in this part of the world, are used to thinking about when we talk about architecture,’ says Chen. ‘But with MAD, emotions are very much connected with the idea of nature.’ The Nieuwe Instituut’s interest in climate resilience and spatial justice finds unexpected alignment in MAD’s emphasis on sensory experience and cultural memory, positioning the exhibition as a counterpoint to more techno-rational design narratives.

The selection of projects, Chen noted, leans toward recent and ongoing work, but also draws attention to the studio’s cross-cultural approach. ‘We always want to bring other cultural perspectives into the conversation,’ he says. ‘What Ma and MAD really do is provide that other schema or worldview for looking at space and how we experience it.’ From Beijing to Los Angeles, Paris to Rotterdam, MAD’s projects resist a singular national identity.

MAD’s early years are presented through models and materials from its 2008 publication MAD Dinner

emotion is presented as a primary design force linking people, nature, and space across cultures

Shan Shui philosophy continues to influence MAD’s organic and landscape-integrated architecture

projects like the Lucas Museum and One River North demonstrate MAD’s design language

project info:

name: Ma Yansong: Architecture & Emotion

museum: Nieuwe Instituut | @nieuweinstituut

architecture: MAD | @madarchitects

location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands

opening: May 16th, 2025

photography: © designboom, © Ossip van Duivenbode | @ossipvanduivenbode

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On May 16, 2025, Rotterdam officially opens Fenix, a museum dedicated to the art and stories of migration, marking MAD’s first cultural building in Europe. Ahead of the public opening, designboom attends the preview of the museum, experiencing the space firsthand and speaking with architect Ma Yansong on site. Set within a 1923 port warehouse in the historic Katendrecht district of the city, Fenix is the result of architectural ambition and emotional gravity (find designboom’s previous coverage here). For MAD, the building is not just a container but a living environment shaped by movement, reflection, and encounter. ‘When you see the light and the people in the building, it really makes a difference,’ Ma Yansong tells us. ‘Before, that was only in the imagination. Now I realize this is a device for people’s movement and for meeting each other.’

The project is a milestone in the regeneration of Rotterdam’s waterfront and reflects the layered history of the site, once the departure point for millions of emigrants crossing the Atlantic. During his visit to the neighborhood, Ma sensed a deeper yearning from the community. ‘In people’s hearts, they wanted a lighthouse,’ he says. ‘They need a spiritual space, a symbol of their generation, or the older generation, or their next generation.’ For him, Fenix is ‘half architecture, half art.’ The Tornado, a dramatic double-helix staircase, crowns the Fenix museum. This centerpiece pierces through the old warehouse and flows upward, culminating in a rooftop platform, offering views of the River Maas and Hotel New York—the former headquarters of the Holland America Line. It’s a sculptural expression of movement and transformation, anchoring the museum in both a physical and symbolic manner. ‘The people’s behavior and reactions complete the work,’ he adds during our walkthrough. ‘Otherwise, it’s just a staircase.’

Rotterdam officially opens Fenix | image by Iwan Baan

a double spiral staircase tops the 1923 port warehouse

‘I saw this really big, heavy concrete building,’ Ma Yansong, founder of international architecture firm MAD, shares with designboom, referring to the original structure. ‘It’s monumental, and from the outside it’s really long and horizontal. My first instinct was to do something vertical, so you can recognize this is something different.’ He explains that the spiraling form of the staircase that tops the museum was essential. ‘There are two connected spirals, so the structure becomes self-supporting. This was essential to avoid columns in the middle. And then it becomes an experience.’ As visitors ascend the Tornado, it becomes a narrative, reflecting their own journeys. ‘You almost see your reflection as yourself traveling through time, always reflecting, borrowing the color, the light from the surroundings,’ he says.

As public and cultural buildings evolve, he comments, ‘public buildings, cultural buildings, will be spaces that bring more people together—not just one’s self.’  That principle shapes every part of Fenix, from its freely accessible ground floor to its soaring Tornado staircase. 

the museum is dedicated to the art and stories of migration | image by Iwan Baan

three major inaugural exhibitions explore migration

Three major exhibitions that reflect on migration through contemporary art, photography, and personal testimony mark the museum’s opening. All Directions brings together over 150 works from global artists, including Bill Viola, Yinka Shonibare, Rineke Dijkstra, and Steve McQueen, alongside newly commissioned pieces by Beya Gille Gacha, Hugo McCloud, and others that explore migration as a personal, lived experience. These works are not displayed in isolation, they’re meant to be experienced, moved through, and reflected in. That principle is embedded in the curatorial approach, as personal stories are intertwined with historical objects. A fragment of the Berlin Wall, a Lampedusa migrant boat, and a 1923 Nansen passport bridge individual journeys with collective memory. The Family of Migrants, inspired by Edward Steichen’s iconic The Family of Man, presents 194 photographs by 136 photographers from 55 countries. Finally, The Suitcase Labyrinth is an immersive installation built from 2,000 donated suitcases—some century-old heirlooms, others recently packed for new lives abroad. As visitors navigate the maze, an audio tour reveals intimate migration stories layered between the luggage.

this centerpiece is clad in 297 polished stainless-steel panels | image © designboom

a cultural landmark rooted in community

Beyond its galleries, Fenix functions as a cultural hub. The 2,275-square-meter Plein on the ground floor acts as a free, indoor city square, hosting performances, community gatherings, and global food explorations. Culinary highlights include a bakery by Michelin-starred Turkish chef Maksut Aşkar and a waterfront gelateria by the Granucci family, a nod to Rotterdam’s multicultural makeup.

Funded by the Droom en Daad Foundation, Fenix is a future-forward institution rooted in a city shaped by migration. ‘Migraton stories are the heartbeat of Fenix. We’ve woven them into every element – whether it’s the magic of Ma Yansong’s architecture, the memories evoked by the artworks on display, the freely accessible Plein, or the gelateria by the Granucci family,’ highlights Fenix director Anne Kremers. ‘We want everyone to feel welcome.’

Fenix Rotterdam and Rijnhaven with L’Áge d’Or by Gavin Turk | image by Iris van den Broek

the Tornado, a dramatic double-helix staircase, crowns the museum | image by Iwan Baan

anchoring the museum in both a physical and symbolic manner | image © designboom

its twisting shape echoes the flow of migration | image © designboom

a rooftop platform offers views of the River Maas and Hotel New York | image by Iwan Baan

a sculptural expression of movement and transformation | image by Iwan Baan

Fenix opens with three major exhibitions

reflecting on migration through contemporary art, photography, and personal testimony | image © Titia Hahne

these artworks are interwoven with objects of memory | image by Iwan Baan

The Family of Migrants is inspired by Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man | image by Iwan Baan

project info:

name: Fenix Museum of Migration | @Fenix

architect: MAD | @madarchitects
collaborators: Bureau Polderman, Droom en Daad Foundation

location: Rotterdam, Netherlands


previous coverage: November 2023, October 2024, January 2025

photographers: Iwan Baan | @iwanbaan, Iris van den Broek | @eyerisshots, Titia Hahne | @titiahahnephoto

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