George Lucas announces MAD and Studio Gang as architects for his Museum

Studio Gang. Architecture studio founded in 1997 by Jeanne Gang based in Chicago, United States. Today, the studio has offices in New York, San Francisco and Paris.

Committed to the context in their respective cities, Studio Gang's four offices, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Paris, form a strong design community, connected by shared values ​​and processes.

Using architecture to connect people to each other, their communities and the environment, they collaborate closely with their clients, expert consultants and specialists from a wide range of fields to realize innovative projects at multiple scales: architecture, planning, interior design and exhibitions.

Jeanne Gang. American architect and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang is the founding principal of Studio Gang. Jeanne is recognized internationally for her bold and functional designs that incorporate ecologically friendly technologies in a wide range of striking structures. She has been sought out by numerous organizations to engage her creative approach for mission-oriented architecture and design.

Her signature forward-thinking approach to architectural design through the pursuit of new technical and material possibilities, as well as the expansion of the active role architects have in society, has distinguished her as a leading architect of her generation.

Jeanne and Studio Gang have produced some of today’s most compelling design work, including the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, the WMS Boathouse at Clark Park, the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo, and Aqua Tower.

Beijing-born architect Ma Yansong is recognized as an important voice in a new generation of architects. Since the founding of MAD in 2004, his works in architecture and art have been widely published and exhibited. He graduated from the Beijing Institute 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 masters degree in Architecture from Yale. He has since taught architecture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Ma Yansong was awarded the 2006 Architecture League Young Architects Award. In 2008 he was selected as one of the twenty most influential Young Architects today by ICON magazine and Fast Company named him one of the ten most creative people in architecture in 2009. In 2010 he became the first architect from China to receive a RIBA fellowship.

“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.

Photo © Daniel J.Allen