HUANGSHAN MOUNTAIN VILLAGE BY MAD

Modern people live in a competitive society with firm belief in efficiency; hence they find it difficult to understand why characters portrayed in Chinese paintings would brave torturous mountain paths to reach the top simply to enjoy a tea in a pavilion. 

Located near Huangshan Mountains , the site of verdant scenery and limestone cliffs have long inspired artists and offered sheltered spaces for contemplation and reflection.

Yet, as an increasingly popular tourist destination – further exposed by its UNESCO Heritage status –it risks to compromise this iconic landscape.

“The impression we have of mt. Huangshan and Taiping Lake is vague: each time they emerged different, a bit mysterious, like ancient landscape paintings, never realistic, but drawn from feelings that appear in the heart and mind.”

“This is the basic idea, that we allow these states of emotion, as someone facing layer upon layer of mountains and haze. We hope that residents will not just look at the scenery, but see themselves in relation to this environment, instead of pursuing life in large cities.” Ma Yansong says.

MAD’s design affirms the inherent significance of this landscape. Composed in deference to the local topography, the village provides housing and communal amenities organized in a linked configuration across the southern slope of Taiping Lake.

As its form evokes the geology of the region, the village blurs the boundaries between the geometries of architecture and nature. For residents, the apartments will be a quiet retreat - an immersive, natural space.  

All apartments have spacious balconies which overlook the lake. Communal amenities and walking paths encourage residents to wander among the buildings. Each floor of each building is unique and accessed from shared social spaces, creating a seamless balance between private and public spaces.

ABSOLUTE TOWERS BY MAD

The Absolute Towers, two residential towers in Mississauga, Canada has been judged the best new high-rise building in the America's by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). 

As the first building by MAD architects to be completed in North America, the 56 and 50 storey twin towers form an organic punctuation in the landscape between the concrete boxed high-rises of downtown of Toronto and the surrounding low-density suburbs.

Fondly dubbed the Marilyn Monroe towers by local residents, the Absolute Towers parallel the twisting fluidity of natural lines found in nature. MAD's design was the favourite by jury and general public during an international competition in 2006, and won continuous support from local municipality during the whole process.

The tower gives each resident a unique experience with continuous balconies that widens viewing angles and promotes a community on a personal level. Alongside the needs for the residents, MAD hopes the towers will add a sense of belonging in the growing city of Mississauga. Full completion of the towers is expected at the end of this summer. 

The CTBUH awards recognise excellence in the design and construction of tall buildings. Four regional awards are granted each year, and the overall winner will be announced at a ceremony in Chicago in October.

“Modernism has a famous motto: A house is a machine for living in. However, as we progress further away from the machine age, we are left with a question: what message should architecture convey? What is the house of today? Like other fast developing suburbs in North America, Mississauga is seeking a new identity.

This is an opportunity to respond to the needs of an expanding city, to create a residential landmark that strives for more than simple efficiency and that provides residents an emotional connection to their hometown. In place of the simple, functional logic of modernism, our design expresses the complex and multiple needs of contemporary society.

This building is more than just a functional machine: it responds to the significance of being located at the junction of two main streets, elegantly bearing its landmark status and acting as a gateway to the city beyond. It is something beautiful, sculptural and human.

Despite its landmark status, the emphasis is not solely on height. Our design features a continuous balcony that surrounds the whole building, eliminating the vertical barriers traditionally used in high rise architecture.

The entire building rotates by different degrees at different levels, corresponding with the surrounding scenery. Our aim is to provide 360 degree views for each residential unit, and to get city dwellers in touch with the natural elements and reawaken their appreciation of nature”. Description from architects.

Location: Mississauga, Canada

Architect: MAD architects

Project Team: Shen Jun, Robert Groessinger, Florian Pucher, Yi Wenzhen, Hao Yi, Yao Mengyao, Zhao Fan, Liu Yuan, Zhao Wei, Li Kunjuan, Yu Kui, Max Lonnqvist, Eric Spencer

Associate Architects: BURKA Architects INC.

Interior Designer: ESQAPE Design

Landscape: NAK Design

Structural Engineer: SIGMUND, SOUDACK & ASSOCIATES INC.

Mechanical Engineer: ECE Group

Electrical Engineer: ECE Group

Directors: Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano, Dang Qun

Tower A: 45,000 sqm, 56 stories/ height 170 m 

Tower B: 40,000 sqm, 50 stories/ height 150 m

NATIONAL ART MUSEUM BY MAD

 

An open city for art.

“ Partaking in a 2011 international competition for a new national museum in Beijing, MAD architects’ proposal is a city-sized museum where the public space is the greatest good.

 

Since China began opening up to the world in the late 1970’s, China’s contemporary creative scene has been expanding to the stage of global confidence with added investment in its artists.

Built in 1962, the National Art Museum of China, already having one of the largest collections in the country, has been the backdrop to some of the most influential exhibitions in contemporary Chinese history.

With the planned move into a new building, the organizing committee followed a global trend: bigger, located in a designated ‘art district’ and more iconic. Situated on the central axis of the 2008 Olympic site, and part of a six mega volume masterplan, the main question became, how to design something iconic on an unrealistic and inhuman city scale.

The proposal by MAD architects for the new museum is a hybrid between an elevated public square and a floating mega building above. Organized as an open city in three layers, the result is a sequence of outdoor and indoor spaces. In these spaces, nature and function are not separated but intertwined.

This creates an architecture that achieves an understanding about one’s bodily presence among the objects that surround him, instead to a functional agglomeration of pre-defined uses.

Organized as an open city in three layers, the result is a sequence of outdoor and indoor spaces. In these spaces, nature and function are not separated but intertwined. This creates an architecture that achieves an understanding about one’s bodily presence among the objects that surround him, instead to a functional agglomeration of pre-defined uses.

MAD architects’ proposal shows how a building can bring the city and art together, creating a urban public space where people can consider their relationship between time, point of view and each other.” Description of MAD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Location: Beijing, China

Architects: MAD

Project Team: Zhao Wei, Sohith Perera, Yu Kui, Jei Kim, Geraldine Lo, Mao Beihong

Engineer: ARUP Group Ltd

Area: 30,000 sqm

Building Area: 152,200 sqm

Year: 2011