Designed by Chinese studio MAD, the Chaoyang Park Plaza is modeled after the mountains and lakes in traditional Chinese paintings. (MAD)
Two years from now, picturesque tall mountains, lakes, and hill terraces will sit on the southern edge of Beijing’s Chaoyang Park. But this landscape will be made of glass and steel towers, since it's the latest architectural project by Chinese studio MAD.
Ma Yansong, founder of the studio, helms the Chaoyang Park Plaza project, which will feature over 120,000 square meters of commercial, office, and residential buildings. The project is expected to be completed in 2016, and intends to blend Chaoyang Park with the rest of the city.
The design is in line with Ma’s ongoing shan-shui city concept, an urban strategy based on Chinese landscape painting styles and named after the Chinese words for "mountains" and "water." According to Dezeen Magazine, Ma’s designs push at the boundaries of blending urban design with natural elements.
”By transforming features of Chinese classical landscape painting, such as lakes, springs, forests, creeks, valleys, and stones, into modern 'city landscapes', the urban space creates a balance between high urban density and natural landscape," said the studio. "The forms of the buildings echo what is found in natural landscapes, and re-introduces nature to the urban realm."
