studioMDA is a multidisciplinary design firm based in New York and founded in 2002 by Markus Dochantschi, with the mission of challenging the boundaries of design.
studioMDA has worked extensively across the United States and internationally in countries such as Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, Germany, Peru, Chile, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi. The firm’s work includes a wide range of typologies, including both high-end and affordable residential, cultural, commercial, institutional, mixed-use, and design competitions. studioMDA has won numerous awards and has been published widely. The firm has emerged as an authority on cultural buildings and has worked extensively with renowned art collectors, artists and gallerists to design more than thirty galleries and over 250 art booths and exhibitions. The office has completed the new Phillips Auction House Headquarters in New York, the Center for Advanced Mobility in Aachen, Germany, and is currently expanding its portfolio with a private contemporary art museum in Thailand.
Markus Dochantschi was trained in Germany, where he graduated in 1995 with a Master of Architecture from Technische Universität Darmstadt. Before starting studioMDA, Dochantschi ran the office of Zaha Hadid Architects for seven years and was Head Project Architect on the Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. He has taught an Advanced Studio at Yale University with Zaha Hadid, Stefan Behnisch and Gerald Hines (2003), and an Advanced Studio at Columbia University’s Graduate School for Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) from 2008 until now.
Markus Dochantschi has also served as the director of the Global Cities Architecture Program (GCAP) at GSAPP. He has been a Guest Lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) and a guest critic at the AA London; Columbia University, NY; The Cooper Union, NY; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Princeton University, Princeton; the ETH Zurich, Switzerland; the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst Vienna, Austria.
Markus Dochantschi has also served as the director of the Global Cities Architecture Program (GCAP) at GSAPP. He has been a Guest Lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) and a guest critic at the AA London; Columbia University, NY; The Cooper Union, NY; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Princeton University, Princeton; the ETH Zurich, Switzerland; the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst Vienna, Austria.
