Architects are transforming the way we experience art.

After studying with seminal Metabolism Group figures Arata Isozaki and Fumihiko Maki in Japan, Markus Dochantschi landed a gig with London’s reigning dame, the late Pritzker Prize-winning, typology-bending Zaha Hadid. During his seven-year term as director at Hadid’s firm, Dochantschi embraced his love of art, particularly when he began working on the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center. “After we won the commission, I went to New York to educate myself about art,” he explains, “and toured a lot of other galleries and museums to try and understand how to best show contemporary art through proportion, light, and a flexible use of space—it is really about the artists having the stage react to them.”

In 2002, that growing passion led him in New York, where he’s since established his own 19-person studioMDA, a go-to firm for high-profile gallerists in the city and beyond. The design eye behind gallery spaces for Anton Kern (newly located in a former townhouse in Midtown), Carpenters Workshop, Paul Kasmin, as well as several residences for art collectors, Dochantschi is also the prolific and well-traveled designer behind what must be a record-breaking number of art fair booths: As of this spring, the count was at a solid 81.

Found on Artsy.