Founded by TANG Kangshuo and ZHANG Miao in 2013, MAT Office is a research and design architectural office started in Rotterdam and practices in Beijing since 2015. The office works typologically, pays close attention on “unit” and “edge”, “publicity” and “openness”, creates public space by the discussion on the relationship of individual and collectivity. It is also an office committed to the observation and speculation of emerging new phenomena and problems in Chinese cities. MAT Office gives proposals from the perspective of urban strategy and architectural design, and hopes to trigger the exploration on the possibility of new building types. The recent practices of MAT Office have mainly focused on urban public space, cultural and educational buildings, creative office parks and the working, living, communal space brought by the ongoing urban regeneration.
MAT Office is particularly interested in the design and research on the lifestyle of today’s young people in megacities. Since 2014, MAT Office initiated the research project on future working space, Office 3.0, which has been accompanied by extensive results and was published in 2016; MAT office has also started research and design projects on the old city renewal as well as community design topics from 2014 to 2018; Further more, MAT office also complete a series of projects on apartment building category and shared living mode product since 2016.
MAT Office is also actively involved in exhibitions, teachings and other cultural events. MAT Office attends in the 15th,16th and 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, the “Unknown City” exhibition in Shenzhen Pingshan Art Museum, UABB Shenzhen/Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale, Beijing Design Week and Suzhou Design Week. Lead architect TANG Kangshuo and ZHANG Miao also participate in the teachings of open studio in University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Chinese Academy of Fine Art, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and Tsinghua University. MAT Office’s design works are widely reported by well-known media both in China and overseas, such as World Architecture, Urban Architecture, Domus, C3, Designboom, Gooood, Archdaily, Architizer, FRAME, bob, INTERINI and IDEAT.