Dezeen promotion: Japanese magazine a+u: Architecture and Urbanism has dedicated its 600th issue to the experimental work of international studio MAD, including its newly completed YueCheng Courtyard Kindergarten in Beijing.
Titled Dreamscape, the September 2020 edition of the monthly a+u journal celebrates the history of MAD and its key projects since it was founded by Ma Yansong in 2004.
The front cover of Dreamscape
Dreamscape features a total of 22 projects by the studio, including architecture and designs produced by its studios across Beijing, Jiaxing, Los Angeles, and Rome.
Among them are Harbin Opera House, Tunnel of Light and its Martian Collection, each recounted through physical models, sketches, drawing and images ? some of which have never been published before. A spread from the magazine profiling the studio's directors
The title and theme for the magazine, Dreamscape, was chosen to reflect MAD's experimental and futuristic approach to design, which a+u said "balances itself ambiguously between art and architecture".
"Since its beginning, the studio has been experimental and bold with its futuristic designs," a+u writes in the magazine preface.
Tunnel of Light is one of 22 featured projects
"To MAD, it is also important that the environment they built maintains spiritual and emotional connections with people through nature," it continued.
"The result of this combination of technology and nature is a type of fiction-architec...