With all the hype about the Chinese art scene it's sometimes easy to forget that Beijing is at present playing host to one of the most vibrant (and determined) architectural pushes of any major city. The last few years has seen new projects by such luminaries as Shigeru Ban, Herzog & De Meuron, Rem Koolhaas and OMA, Paul Andreu, Kengo Kuma, and Riken Yamamoto, amongst others. Japan has long since been acknowledged as a fertile land, sprouting young architectural talents like so many sakura (and we in Beijing are still anxiously awaiting projects here from Ando Tadao and SANAA), but China has yet to be acknowledged as an architectural powerhouse. To that end I thought I'd take a second to introduce a couple of young starchitectural [sic] firms budding here in Beijing.

MAD
MAD is one of a new breed of studios that bridges the gap (if there is, in fact, such a gap) between art and architecture. It was founded in 2004 by native Beijinger Ma Yansong, who had previously worked as a project designer for Zaha Hadid's firm. He has since been awarded the Architecture League of New Yorks' Young Architect Award and been named one of the 20 most influential young architects by ICON.

They have had two works featured at the Beijing Architecural Biennale (WTC Rebuilt - Floating Island, and Fish Tank); an art installation, 'Ink Ice' at the Chinese Calligraphy Art exhibition of 2004; a feature at the Venice Architecture Biennial ('MAD in China'), and had a show, 'MAD Under Construction', at the Beijing Tokyo Art Projects gallery, which I've previously mentioned regarding their showing of Waza's work. Notable projects include the Erdos Museum in Inner Mongolia, the Absolute Tower in suburban Toronto, and the World in Dubai.

Studio Pei-Zhu
Studio Pei-Zhu was founded in 2005 by Pei Zhu, after he left Urbanus, a firm that he cofounded in 1999. Studio Pei-Zhu was one of the 10 firms awarded to the Design Vanguard 2007 list by Architectural Record, and have been making quite a name for themselves over the past two years. Key projects include the beautifully understated Hotel Kapok near Forbidden City, and Digital Beijing in the Olympic Park, which must be seen to be believed (get your Googles out). They are also in the midst of doing uber-artiste Cai Guoqiang's personal courtyard residence in Beijing, and are on retainer by the Guggenheim Foundation to handle Guggenheim's Beijing premises, whenever they decide to come round.