Cityzen Developments

Yansong Ma 101: Vertu pavilion, Milan

Yansong Ma's work extends beyond our cherished Absolute Towers. His engulfing architectural design with MAD Architects is recognized worldwide, and he's not even 40 years old. This is part three in a series of his award-winning architectural and art works. 

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Back in October 2011, MAD Architects was commissioned to create a mobile pavilion for Vertu, a luxury mobile phone company.  

At first glance, the pavilion looks like it could be a piece of public art. The black crystal juts out of Milan's historic Palazzo Serbelloni. But these shards never stay in one place, traveling to Shanghai, Dubai, Beijing and London. Suddenly, the context changes as the city does. 

Vertu, owned by Nokia, wanted to promote their new Constellation T touchscreen phone with the help of MAD, who took the project to a whole new level. The traveling structure is made of approximately eight tons of steel and resembles something alien that crashed on planet earth. Sound familiar? The spikes -- each independent units -- can attach themselves to the basic dome-like skeleton that underlies the work. 

 

We're seeing it everywhere in Yansong Ma's work, principal architect of MAD. He's really into the notion of "alien". Bizarre sculptures burst into our urban landscapes, overtake our cities with great energy. It is all so calculated, yet completely organic.

The Vertu pavilion exemplifies that meteor-hits-planet-earth vibe, which lies in stark contrast to the 18th century neoclassical architecture of Milan. Ma said himself that the choice of locations for this project should feel a bit "accidental," almost like an extreme collision.  A collision between old and new, perhaps, or traditional and modern. 

Sam Talks (to twitter followers): July 2012 edition

Many of our devoted Twitter followers are curious about the inner workings of Cityzen. When we tweeted that we would sit down with Sam for our monthly updates, followers started to chime in with their own questions for him. We asked, and Sam answered. 

Yansong Ma 101: Hutong Bubble 32, Beijing, China

Yansong Ma's work extends beyond our cherished Absolute Towers. His engulfing architectural design is recognized worldwide, and he's not even 40 years old. This is part two in a series of his award-winning architectural and art works. 

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A silver luminescent blob appears in a narrow alleyway of old Beijing. Its amusing shape sits in complete contrast to its ancient surroundings, which are known as traditional Chinese courtyard residences.

The curious, space-age lump is called Hutong Bubble 32, and it lays in Beijing’s hutongs (slim residential alleyways that lead to courtyards) that have been part of Beijing’s history for thousands of years.

But what is it, exactly?

 

Hutong Bubble 32 is a small station that includes a bathroom and staircase to a roof garden. Amidst the aged, tapering neighbourhoods of Beijing, the bubble serves hutong communities by improving their access to sanitary services.

Yansong Ma, founding principal of MAD Architects, has no qualms with calling it an “alien creature.” The mysterious bubble reflects the surrounding wood, brick and greenery, implying that the past and future can coexist.

Since the mid-20th century, hutongs have been demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. Recently, some have been designated as protected areas for heritage preservation.

“In the courtyards that have survived, there are two situations,” Ma says. “It either looks exactly like it did 30 years ago – no gas, no heating, no toilet – or it has become a huge, newly renovated traditional-looking concrete villa for rich people.”

 

What influenced Ma to direct this project?

Ma believes the Hutong Bubble 32 makes a statement on rapid development in Beijing affecting the city’s courtyards. Like many of his past and future projects, there is a metaphorical and visual link about the tension between modern and traditional China. Hutongs are culturally important to Beijing; each hutong has its anecdotes and histories, but each faces challenges.

 

In a first-person account of the surrounding neighbourhood of Hutong Bubble 32, writer Brendan McGetrick reveals that it is an “odd environment, a mixture of pushy SUVs, scrawny cats, tour groups, hanging underwear and putrid toilets.”

Ma hopes that if other bubbles are inserted in Beijing, they will attract “new people, activities, and resources to reactivate entire neighborhoods,” he says.

 

MAD’s proposal for the future Beijing 2050 was first revealed at its exhibition MAD IN CHINA in Venice during the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale.

 

Yansong Ma 101: The Ordos Museum, Inner Mongolia

Yansong Ma's work extends beyond our cherished Absolute Towers. His engulfing architectural design is recognized worldwide, and he's not even 40 years old. This is part one in a series of his award-winning architectural and art works. 

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Imagine trekking through the Gobi desert; a dry, stormy chunk of land spanning across Mongolia and northern China. Then you see it: a giant, curvy spaceship-like globule with undulating aluminum panels.

At first you're taken aback by its amorphous qualities, but you're bewildered by its placement. Nothing surrounds this beautiful, ethereal structure, which is the Ordos Museum envisioned by Yansong Ma and MAD Architects in 2005.

“When we got to the site, it was like the middle of nowhere,” says Ma. “It was like an endless desert landscape.” He was thrilled that it looked like it came from outer space. “I wouldn’t want people to think I borrowed an architectural style, and I wanted to create a different type of architecture,” he said. “If they want to call it alien, I think that’s great. Nobody knows what’s from outer space, so that’s good.”

Ma strongly believes that the building should be without cultural identity. Whereas most architecture for new Chinese cities envision either modern or traditional styles, Ma sees the Ordos Museum as simply an abstract object that landed on the desert.

“I knew I was going to design a building in the centre of this new masterplan,” Ma said, “But I didn’t know what buildings would be around us.” Slowly but surely, the building fills with exhibitions of contemporary art and prehistoric artifacts from the area. The space is dedicated to the indigenous, nomadic, equine culture that exists in Ordos.

Placed in the district of Kangbashi, Ordos is expanding at a rapid pace; not only is it home to an increasing number of coal millionaires but it also produces China’s highest gross domestic product per capita. The town has one-sixth of all of China’s coal reserves and one-third of its natural gas reserves. But it's not filled to the brim with people yet.

Controversial Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei was selected to master-plan Ordos 100, a community of 100 parcels of land curated by Swiss architecture firm Herzog and de Meuron. The project remains unfinished while the Ordos Museum was completed in November 2011. 

What is the future of Ordos itself? There are already hundreds of people congregating around the museum before sunset every day. “In the end, it will become a very successful public space,” Ma assures himself. When you think about it, it wouldn't be so bad to visit a museum surrounded by sand dunes.

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Resources:

• MAD's stunning video captures the link between Mongolia’s nomadic heritage and Ordos city’s urbanism
• DesignBoom: Fantastic high-resolution photos of Ordos
• An hour-long documentary on Ordos 100, the residential project masterplanned by noted Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei
• An interview with Yansong Ma about Ordos via Yale Daily News