Tiffany Dahlen, graduated from School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, joined MAD in 2010. Demonstrating a high level of professionalism and efficiency, she has proven to be an excellent project manager. Leading competitions and built projects both in China and abroad, she has experience working on complex large-scale projects in dense urban conditions. Currently Tiffany leads the development of the Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, and has worked on a number of MAD’s iconic projects, such as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in LA, Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, Chaoyang Park Plaza in Beijing, Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, Huangshan Mountain Village in Huangshan, and Xinhee Design Center in Xiamen. She has also been involved in the realization of several MAD art projects, including: “Moon Landscape” for Swarovski and the “Vertu Mobile Pavilion”.

Los Angeles Office

Tiffany Dahlen, graduated from School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, joined MAD in 2010. Demonstrating a high level of professionalism and efficiency, she has proven to be an excellent project manager.  Leading competitions and built projects both in China and abroad, she has experience working on complex large-scale projects in dense urban conditions. Currently Tiffany leads the development of the Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, and has worked on a number of MAD’s iconic projects, such as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in LA, Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, Chaoyang Park Plaza in Beijing, Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, Huangshan Mountain Village in Huangshan, and Xinhee Design Center in Xiamen. She has also been involved in the realization of several MAD art projects, including: “Moon Landscape” for Swarovski and the “Vertu Mobile Pavilion”.

The MAD Martian Collection is a limited-edition furniture series designed by Ma Yansong and released by Gallery ALL. Comprising five pieces a dining table, chaise lounge, candelabra, suspension lights, and console table the collection explores the intersection of science fiction and design through a futuristic, extraterrestrial lens.

The project began with a speculative question: what kind of environment would humans recreate once settled on Mars? The resulting forms, shaped over a two-year design process, reinterpret MAD’s Shanshui City philosophy within the context of a Martian future. Each piece reflects imagined landscapes beyond Earth, evoking natural forms in an unfamiliar world.

The collection draws inspiration from 20th-century science fiction, incorporating visual references from the Space Race era and early visions of life beyond Earth. This influence is visible in the sleek silhouettes and fluid geometries of the designs. Finished in a highly reflective metallic skin, the pieces appear adaptable, responsive, and detached from a specific time or place while still rooted in human memory and imagination.

Presented as part of Gallery ALL’s in-house commission program, the MAD Martian Collection is Ma Yansong’s first furniture series and debuted at Design Miami/Basel in 2017.


Miami, USA

Product

LI Guangchong, Casey Kell, Dmitry Seregin, ZHU Yuhao, YAN Ran, Matthew Pugh, Marco Gastoldi 

Martian Collection

Timeless Beacon is an installation for the Art at Qiaoshan – 2022 Guangdong Nanhai Land Art Festival, located at the historic Taiping Market in Xiqiao, Nanhai. Once a vital trading hub along the Xijiang River, the market served as a gathering place for villagers, fishermen, and traders through the 1980s and 90s. With urbanization and digital commerce, its role diminished, and much of the village became quiet and underused.

The installation reactivates this site by engaging its emotional and historical layers rather than restoring its original function. A three-story building is wrapped in reflective material that mirrors the surrounding streetscape, visually blending architecture with its context. At its center, a tall multimedia light tower is draped in colorful fabric that flutters by day and illuminates at night. The structure becomes a glowing landmark for the village and river, symbolically linking past and future.

Timeless Beacon transforms a fading space into a site of reflection and imagination. The work speaks to resilience, memory, and renewal by turning an overlooked place into a shared visual experience. It invites visitors to reconsider the meaning of rural space and the evolving relationship between people, place, and time.


Foshan, China

Installation 

Timeless Beacon

Yiwu, well recognized in international trade, is a representative of Jiangnan culture. Located on the south bank of the Dongyang River, Yiwu Grand Theater elegantly floats on the water’s surface in a romantic atmosphere. It is defined by a layering of semi-transparent glass canopies that resembles the texture of silk. The subtle curves echo the Jiangnan-style eaves of local traditional architectures. The semi-transparent glass curtain wall not only acts as a shading system, but also optimizes the use of natural light within the interior.

Yiwu Grand Theater emphasizes public engagement: it allows pedestrians to meander along the north side of the water. An amphitheater and large open plaza extend into the water, while landscaped terraces offer an immersive natural experience within the urban context. Between the grand theater and the conference center lies a “valley” of trees. The rich landscaping weaves itself between the varying heights of the two buildings, providing another public space for visitors to explore.

Yiwu, China

Culture

Yiwu Grand Theater

Hutong Bubble 218 is the second small-scale intervention in Beijing’s historic neighborhoods. Located in Qianmen East, near the Forbidden City, the project restores and transforms a Qing Dynasty courtyard house as part of the Old City Renewal Research Program.

The site once housed Beijing’s first international hospital and later served as communal housing. Years of unregulated modifications led to severe structural decline and vacancy. We preserved the courtyard’s historic gray brick structure and restored original wooden elements while introducing futuristic sculptural additions called “bubbles.”

The mirrored bubbles, one connecting floors as a staircase and shared workspace, and another perched on the rooftop, contrast the old architecture while blending into the surroundings by reflecting sky, trees, and buildings. These surreal additions serve new functions while maintaining harmony with the courtyard’s original character.

“Hutong Bubble 218” continues MAD’s vision from Beijing 2050 a proposal to inject life into aging urban fabric through micro-scale architectural interventions. Rather than erase history, the design encourages coexistence between old and new, revitalizing neglected areas with fresh energy and community potential.


Beijing, China

Adaptive Reuse

Hutong Bubble 218

A sculpture to sit on. A frozen form of space in continuous movement. A chair with a poetic focus on motion and fluidity. It is like an object, leaving a trace of its acceleration and strength. Aerodynamic, sleek and charismatic. The hollow metal supporting legs place the sculpture in a state of equilibrium with strength. The armrests create a leaning-forward posture with speed through simple curvatures. The chair incorporates movement, energy and spatial changes into its form.

Rome, Italy

Dynamik Chair

Being the largest island in the Fujian province, Pingtan is also the Chinese island nearest to Taiwan. In 2010, the 'Comprehensive Experimental Zone' project in Pingtan was officially launched; the island is expected to become the primary location for trade and cultural communication between Taiwan and the mainland in the foreseeable future. The island, which is currently home to fisheries and a military base, will quickly be transformed into a large-scale urban development zone.

This new city, which is still under planning, will hold the museum at its center. The museum itself acts as a smaller scale island off the Pingtan Island itself, connected to land only by a slightly undulating pier, which, in turn, bridges artificial and natural, city and culture, as well as history and future. The museum represents a long-lasting earthscape in water and is a symbol of the island in ancient times, with each island containing a mountain beneath it.

The island is firstly a public space that is then turned into a museum. The sea, the beach, the oasis and the slope all interconnect with each other, forming a harmonious capacious space with the mountains in the distance. The building is constructed with concrete that is blended with local sand shells. The indoor space, formed by the rise and fall of the formal movements, looks similar to ancient caves.

Pingtan Art Museum is built in a landscape setting of an urban city. After its completion, it will create a new space for the city and the city's inhabitants and further inspire them to reflect on the impact made by time and nature.



Pingtan, China

Zhao Wei, Huang Wei, Liu Jiansheng, Jei Kim, Li Jian, Li Guangchong, Alexandre Sadeghi

Pingtan Art Museum

A Village Under the Dome is our proposal for the Zhuhai Cultural Arts Center, situated on the former site of Yinkeng Village, a historic settlement dating back to the Northern Song Dynasty. Rather than replacing the demolished village with a typical large-scale civic complex, we reimagined the site as a protected cultural landscape preserving the original village layout and memories while introducing new functions.

Instead of erasing the site’s history, we organized the center’s programs into small-scale, village-like buildings that follow the original street network and topography. These structures are unified under a translucent dome that floats above the village ruins, acting as both shelter and symbol. The dome is supported by a cable-membrane structure, remaining open at its base to encourage access from all directions and blend with the sky like a soft mist.

Key elements of Yinkeng Village, including its ancient banyan tree, pond, and plazas, are preserved and re-integrated into the civic space. The design prioritizes community, memory, and emotional connection, advocating for urban renewal that respects history.

By merging old and new, A Village Under the Dome reflects a civic architecture rooted in cultural continuity and human experience, offering an alternative vision for development in rapidly urbanizing cities.



Zhuhai, China

Zhuhai Cultural Arts Center

Situated on the site of a traditional siheyuan courtyard dating back to 1725, Courtyard Kindergarten inserts a new building onto the historic site, forming a multi-layered urban narrative where old and new co-exist.

There is a saying in old Beijing: ‘three days without beating, and the child will scale the roof and rip off the tiles!’ Somehow, it describes the freedom of climbing up high and running on the roof hat children picture. MAD imagines the rooftop as a dynamic floating structure – a colourful playground, a magical place and an escape for children. Below the roof, the kindergarten’s open-concept layout serves multiple functions, offering a free and inclusive environment, with no boundaries or obstacles.

In its entirety, Courtyard Kindergarten merges seemingly conflicting architectural elements with the new design. It retains the authenticity of the original buildings, while creating new interaction between the old and the new. It offers children an understanding of history and space, preserving their inborn passion for freedom and pure imagination.


Education

YueCheng Courtyard Kindergarten

The “Marilyn,” is a door handle designed in collaboration with Olivari for Milan Design Week. Inspired by our “Absolute Towers” in Mississauga nicknamed the “Marilyn Monroe Towers” for their soft, curving silhouette the handle echoes the same fluid movement in miniature.

The door handle represents the first point of physical connection between a person and a space. With this in mind, “Marilyn” was designed to feel intuitive and natural from the moment of touch. Its sinuous form gently twists, referencing the continuous rotation of the towers while providing a smooth, ergonomic experience.

The horizontal curve fits easily into the palm, while the vertical surface invites the thumb to rest comfortably, offering a quiet but meaningful interaction with form.


Milan, Italy

Li Guangchong, Sean Tan, Hiroki Fujino

Olivari

Marilyn Handle

Floating Earth is a sculptural tray designed as a poetic reflection on the relationship between humanity and the planet. Inspired by the earth’s quiet presence beneath all things, the piece explores themes of support, impermanence, and perspective.

While we often focus on what rests upon the surface homes, cities, growth the tray draws attention to the unseen foundation that makes it all possible. Its layered form suggests vertical expansion, like the rising floors of a tower, filled with potential but always rooted in the same ground.

Floating Earth is both functional and symbolic, inviting reflection on our dependence on the planet and its quiet autonomy. It reminds us that while we build and inhabit its surface, the earth does not exist solely for us it endures with or without our presence, always reaching toward the sky.
