Insight #1 by IMM Cologne Newsgallery: Ma Yansong from Mad Architects

IMM Cologne Newsgallery Page has been publishing several interviews with big names in architecture and design. MA Yansong is the founder & principal partner of the firm MAD Architects. Beijing-born architect Yansong is recognized as an important voice in the new generation of architects. He is the first Chinese architect to win an overseas landmark-building project. As the founder and principal of MAD.Architects, Ma leads design across various scales. In recent years, many of Ma’s designs follow his conception of the “Shanshui City”, which is his vision to create a new balance among society, the city and the environment through new forms of architecture.

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Since designing the “Floating Island” in 2002, Ma has been exploring this idea through an international practice.  At MAD, Ma has created a series of imaginative works, including Absolute Towers, Hutong Bubble 32, Ordos Museum, China Wood Sculpture Museum, Fake Hills, etc. In 2014, Ma was selected as the principal designer for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Chicago, which made him the first Chinese architect to design overseas culture landmark. Parallel to his design practice, he has also been exploring with the public the cultural values of cities and architecture through domestic and international solo exhibitions, publications and art works. See more here.

ConradHotel and Sheraton HuzhouHotSpring Resort are two of our favorite projects developed by this firm.

Doors opened to the Beijing Conrad Hotel at the end of 2013. Through its unique form, MAD proposes a new conceptual possibility: the building’s “living architecture” seeks to embed itself within the fabric of the rectilinear city much as a plant rises through the crack of a concrete sidewalk.

This platinum five-star hotel sits at a busy corner at the east 3rd ring road of Beijing’s CBD, the city’s most modernized district. The exterior facade is a neural network that reacts to the interior grid structure, moving sinuously as it reaches towards the sky. MAD’s design represents the subtle invasion of nature into our built landscape, softening the rigidity of efficient and anonymous structures. To the south of the hotel lies a rare piece of serene nature, the Tuanjiehu Park. The Conrad Hotel serves as a transition between this natural paradise and an otherwise urban terrain. The mutation of the form breaks the monotony of the city, adding fresh energy and raising the expectation of what one can hope for urbanity.

Location : Beijing, China
Type : Hotel
Time : 2008-2013
Site Area : 7,779 sqm
Building Area : 56,994 sqm
Building Height : 106m

Sheraton Moon Hotel is located next to Nan Tai Lake in Huzhou, a city situated west of Shanghai and north of Hangzhou, overlooking Suzhou and Wuxi across the lake. Since ancient times, Huzhou has been known as “the house of silk” and “the land of plenty.” The hotel’s arcing form connects past and present and land and water. The unique design which integrates the building into the waterscape of Tai Lake, reflecting in the water below and creating a poetic echo of the natural landscape.

The Moon Hotel takes full advantage of its waterfront by directly integrating architecture and nature. The circular building and its corresponding mirror-image in the water, create a surreal circle that is half structure and half reflection. Beneath the sunlight and the reflection of the lake, the curved shape of the building is crystal clear. When night falls, the entire building is lit up brightly by both its interior and exterior lighting. Soft light wraps around the hotel and the water, resembling the bright moon rising above the lake, blending nature and structure through the reflection. The clear ring-shape posed a great challenge to the structural design that was solved by a reinforced concrete core-tube. This design innovation features high-capacity, light-weight concrete that offers excellent earthquake resistance and reduced environmental pollution during construction. The mesh curved surface offers structural support, which is further enhanced by the bridge-like bracing steel structure connecting the double cone structure at the top floor. The hotel façade is covered with layers of fine-textured white aluminum rings and glass.

Location : Huzhou, China
Type : Hotel
Time : 2009-2012
Building Area : 59,686 sqm
Building Height : 102m