Nature and Experimental density in LA. Garden House by MAD Architects

Architecture firm, Beijing and Los Angeles-based, MAD Architects has released photography of the firm's Garden House project, an 18-unit luxury residential development located in Los Angeles that offers "a rebuttal to the stereotypical cubic-box living environments of high-density cities across the world," according to the architects.

The mixed-use complex contains commercial spaces along the ground floor above, two floors are developed with a facade characterized by a wall with a vertical garden and the building is finished with a stack of residential units with house-shaped geometries.

Garden House by MAD Architects. Photograph courtesy of Darren Bradley

According to Ma Yansong, 45 and founder of MAD architects the project was inspired by the "hillside village" typology, the project develops a cluster of metal panel-wrapped homes, reflecting their pitched roof configurations, and that overlook a central courtyard situated at the center of the building.

The intermediate levels of the building, meanwhile, are wrapped in a verdant grow wall studded with drought tolerant plants that will exist as one of the largest such installations in the world when fully up and running.

Units surrounding the courtyard enjoy a ground-level grove of trees and water conveying the experience of a “secret garden". All feature glass exposures looking into the central space "with careful consideration given to the distance, orientation, and arrangement of balconies overlooking the courtyard," said architects.

“Los Angeles and Beverly Hills are highly modernized and developed. Their residences on the hills seemingly coexist with the urban environment. However, they also see enclosed movement at their core. The commune connection between the urban environment and nature is isolated. What new perspectives, and new value, can we bring to Los Angeles? Perhaps, we can create a hill in the urban context, so people can live on it and make it a village. This place will be half urban, half nature. This can offer an interesting response to Beverly Hills: a neighborhood which is often carefully organized and maintained, now with a witty, playful new resident.”

MAD Principal Ma Yansong

Read less

Garden House by MAD Architects. Photograph courtesy of Nic Lehoux

Site plan. Garden House by MAD Architects.

Ground floor plan. Garden House by MAD Architects.

First and Second floors plan. Garden House by MAD Architects.

Third floor plan. Garden House by MAD Architects.

Fourth floor plan. Garden House by MAD Architects.

Roof plan. Garden House by MAD Architects.

Section. Garden House by MAD Architects.

Elevation. Garden House by MAD Architects.

View more images

Metalocus recommends

Nereidas Homes by Studio Font. Photograph by Albers Studio

Inhabiting the desert. Nereidas Homes by Studio Font

Casa Bosc by Ágora Arquitectura. Photograph by Adrià Goulà

Reflective home. Casa Bosc by Ágora Arquitectura

Villa V by Aramé Studio. Photograph by Bani Del Rio.

Between bourgeois spatiality and vernacular construction. Villa V by Aramé Studio

More information

Label

Architects

Text

MAD Architects. Principal.- Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano. Associate partners in charge.- Flora Lee, Dixon Lu.

Label

Project team

Text

Li Guangchong, Jon Kontuly, Joanna Tan, Chris Hung-Yu Chen, Wenshan Xie, Cesar D Pena Del Rey, Jeffrey Miner

Label

Collaborators

Text

Executive architect.- Gruen Associates
Structural engineer.- John Labib + Associates (JLA)
MEP engineer.- Breen Engineering Inc.
Interior design.- Rottet Studio
Civil engineering.- Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.
Green wall specialist.- Seasons Landscape.
Architect of Record and landscape architect.- Gruen Associates.

Label

Client

Text

Palisades Capital Partners LLC.

Label

General constructor

Text

DHC Builders, Inc.

Label

Area

Text

Site area.-: 2,400 sqm / 25,833 sqf
Building area.- 4,460 sqm / 48,007 sqf project.
Building height.- 18 m / 59 ft

Label

Dates

Text

2013-2020.

Label

Location

Text

Along Wilshire Boulevard at Stanley, about three blocks west of the Saban Theatre. Beverly Hills. LA. USA.

Label

Photography

Text

Darren Bradley, Nic Lehoux.

MA YANSONG

Ma Yansong is a Chinese architect, founder and principal partner of MAD Architects. He graduated from the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Ma attended Yale University after receiving the American Institute of Architects Scholarship for Advanced Architecture Research in 2001 and holds a master's degree in Architecture from Yale. Before founding MAD in Beijing in 2004, he began his professional career at Zaha Hadid's studio.

He has taught at the University of Southern California, Tsinghua University, and Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture.

Since the founding of MAD in 2004, his works in architecture and art have been widely published and exhibited. His work also extends to exhibitions, publishing, product design and art, while his architectural practice has consistently explored the relationship between the built environment, landscape and nature.

Ma Yansong was awarded the 2006 Architecture League Young Architects Award. In 2008, he was selected as one of twenty influential young architects by ICON magazine, and Fast Company named him one of the ten most creative people in architecture in 2009. In 2010, he received the RIBA International Fellowship. In 2025, he was included in TIME's annual TIME100 list of the world's most influential people and curated the China Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2026, he was appointed international Guest Editor of Domus and elected an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (Hon. FAIA).

“I work with emotion and with the context. When I design a building, I close my eyes and feel as if I saw a virtual world which lays half way between the city, the nature and the land. It goes from large scale to small scale. Many things travel in front of my eyes; I feel them and try to find the way to express my feelings. The language I use is the least important of it all. It does not matter whether they are straight lines, curves... I only intend for people to feel the same or to find something unexpected” says Ma Yansong. “MAD is an attitude, a posture towards architecture, towards society. Through our work we want people to be inspired by a place through local nature, time and space”, he states.

Photograph by Daniel J.Allen

Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano. MAD

mad is a Beijing-based architecture design office dedicated to creating innovative projects. Founded by Ma Yansong in 2004, MAD Architects is led by Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, and Yosuke Hayano. It is committed to developing futuristic, organic, technologically advanced designs that embody a contemporary interpretation of the Eastern affinity for nature. With a vision for the city of the future based on the spiritual and emotional needs of residents, MAD endeavours to create a balance between humanity, the city, and the environment.

MAD's projects encompass urban planning, urban complexes, municipal buildings, museums, theatres, concert halls, and housing, as well as art and design. Their projects are located in China, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States. In 2006, MAD won the design competition for the Absolute Towers in Mississauga, Canada. Through this, MAD became the first Chinese architecture firm to build a significant high-rise project abroad. In 2014, MAD was selected as the principal designer for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, USA, becoming the first China-based architecture firm to design an overseas cultural landmark. MAD’s signature cultural projects include Ordos Museum (2011, China), Harbin Opera House (2015, China), Tunnel of Light (2018, Japan), China Philharmonic Concert Hall (under construction), Yiwu Grand Theater (under construction), FENIX Museum of Migration in Rotterdam (under construction), Cloudscape of Haikou (2021, China), and Shenzhen Bay Culture Square (under construction). Other urban projects include the Clover House kindergarten (2015, Japan), Chaoyang Park Plaza (2017, China), China Entrepreneur Forum Conference Centre (2021, China), Jiaxing Train Station (under construction), Quzhou Sports Campus (under construction), and Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center (under construction), among others.

While practising architecture, MAD documents and discusses its reflections on architecture, culture, and arts through publications, architectural exhibitions, as well as academic lectures and presentations. MAD’s publications include Mad Dinner, Bright City, MA YANSONG: From (Global) Modernity to (Local) Tradition, Shanshui City, and MAD X. MAD has organized and participated in several contemporary art and design exhibitions, including MAD X, a solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 2019; Shanshui City, at UCCA in 2014; Feelings are Facts, a spatial experience exhibition with artist Ólafur Eliasson at UCCA in 2010; and MAD in China, a solo exhibition at the Danish Architectural Center, Copenhagen in 2007. MAD has participated in significant exhibitions at several iterations of the Venice Architecture Biennale and Milan Design Week. MAD has also participated in exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Copenhagen), and MAXXI (Rome). An array of MAD’s architecture models have been acquired by the Centre Pompidou and M+ Museum (Hong Kong) as part of their permanent collections.

MAD has offices in Beijing (China), Jiaxing (China), Los Angeles (USA), and Rome (Italy).

Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano and Qun Dand.

Published on: August 26, 2020

Cite:

metalocus, ANDRÉS ROJAS

"Nature and Experimental density in LA. Garden House by MAD Architects" METALOCUS. Accessed

<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/nature-and-experimental-density-la-garden-house-mad-architects> ISSN 1139-6415