World Architecture News today announced MAD Architects as a winner of the WAN21 awards. The awards aim to highlight outstanding, forward-thinking people and organizations who have demonstrated the potential to be the next big thing in the architectural world.

Ma was invited to present a lecture at Pavilion-Arsenal in Paris on the 12th of March. He shared with the audience an inside look at the Absolute Towers project in Toronto and discussed the challenges faced during the design and construction, including the links established with clients and stake-holders.

Invited by Wolf Prix and Studio Lynn, Ma Yansong will speak within IoA-SLIVER lecture series at the Institute of Architecture of University of Applied Arts in Vienna at 7pm on the 6th of March.

Between the 8th and 11th of February 2012, Ma Yansong was invited to lecture throughout Spain. Locations included the School of Architecture LaSalle, Barcelona and COAM Foundation, Madrid. Local media actively responded to Ma’s visit, showing keen interest in MAD and its practice in China and abroad.

Ma Yansong was invited to present and participate in the 2011 CREATIVE TOKYO autumn forum on the 3rd and 4th of November. In his presentation he discussed about MAD’s works and its exploration of futuristic design, amongst the panel included many creative industry professionals ranging from designers, architects, to curators and editors.

MAD announced the opening of its mobile pavilion designed for VERTU. The traveling exhibition feature will start in Milan, at the historic Palazzo Serbelloni , then to Shanghai, Dubai, Beijing, and London.

Tonight Ma Yansong will lecture at the Technical University of Prague where he will discuss MAD’s recent work as well as MAD’s Urban Forest, which is on exhibition the whole week during Prague Architecture week.

MAD presents “The Little Rock Fountain Journal” in 2011 Chengdu Biennale. This year’s biennale research theme is based on Changing Vistas: Creative Duration. The exhibited work is inspired by the well known literature “The Little Rock Fountain Journal”, written by Liu Zhongyuan during the ancient Tang dynasty of great China.

Ma Yansong presented the design of “Floating Earth” a mahogany and stainless steel tray whose multiple levels create a sinuous organic form. The prototypes are on exhibit until 31 October 2011 at the China Shijitan Contemporary Art Center in Beijing.

Located in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, the Art and City Museum is a crossroads for a community working to interpret its local traditions in a new urban context. The completion of the museum offers a moment of pause in a city which has seen no end to construction in recent years.

Travel Scholarship Recipients Announced. MAD would like to thank Vertu for their long term support and sponsor on our MAD Travel Fellowship.

The Maxxi Museum in Rome today opened “verso Est., Towards a Chinese Architectural Landscape” a comprehensive exhibition on contemporary Chinese architecture that reflects on China’s architectural landscapes from the past decade.

To celebrate the moving in of the Absolute Towers’ first residents, the New York Times featured an interview with architect Ma Yansong, the client and construction contractor for the Absolute Towers.

Abitare has recently invited Ma Yansong to Abitare’s feature architect interview. Through a personal interview with MAD’s director Ma Yansong, the interview attempts to explore architectonic projects and how Ma works within the natural environment and the urban realm.

Edwin Heathcote of the Financial Times talks with Ma Yansong on the phenomenon of the starchitect and how Ma has come to be so successful so quickly, as well as the MAD style to how he feels about the Chinese city of the future.

Online magazine Fast Company has named MAD Architects one of the 10 most innovative companies in China.

ICON magazine published a special edition about MAD’s ongoing projects. Inside, Ma Yansong talks with Douglas Murphy about nearing the completion of the Absolute Towers, being the first Chinese architect to win a major international competition, and what it means to represent a generation.

At the invitation of the Italian Embassy in Beijing, Ma Yansong sat down with Massimiliano Fuksas at 751 D-park to discuss their work, the future of the city, and the similarities in working in Italy and China.

MAD Architects unveiled the design for a new museum in the city of Harbin for traditional Chinese wood sculpture. As the primary urban and industrial hub in northeastern China, Harbin is redefining itself as a regional center for the arts and culture.

The Absolute Towers, 2 residential towers near Toronto designed by MAD, topped out last Friday at 170 meters, and establishes MAD’s bold new approach to residential design.

Ma Yansong gave a lecture on “MAD WORKS” at the Vitra Design Museum October 15th as part of the exhibition “Rising East, New Chinese Architecture”.

The Council of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has awarded Ma Yansong, founder of MAD, as the first architect from China to receive a prestigious RIBA International Fellowship.

MAD would like thank Vertu for the support and sponsor on MAD 2010 Travel Scholarship, we are please to announce the successful recipients for this year.

Feelings Are Facts is the first collaboration between Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and leading Chinese architect, Ma Yansong.

The Monster’s Footprint, MAD’s design for the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, was unveiled in Shenzhen’s Citizen’s Square. Paved with pink EPDM material, the sunken footprints serve as a playground and gathering space for local residents.