Overview
With every new project, MAD Architects live up to their name with increasing conviction. Thanks to them we now have curvy skyscrapers in Canada, Hutong Bubbles in Beijing and an 'irregular nucleus' serving as a museum in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Now, the futuristic and nature-oriented studio has developed an art museum that's actually an artificial island. Currently under construction, the Pingtan Art Museum will soon house Asia's largest private art collection, which consists of over one thousand items.
The museum will be attached to the Island of Pingtan by what the architects describe as a 'slightly undulating pier, which, in turn, bridges artificial and natural, city and culture, as well as history and future'. As the biggest island in China's Fujian province, and the Chinese island closest to Taiwan, Pingtan looks set to become an important point of communication (for both trade and culture) over the next decade. The museum will become the centre of a new city that is still under planning.
MAD describes the architecture as inextricably linked with surrounding organic forms: 'The sea, the beach, the oasis and the slope all interconnect with each other, forming a harmonious capacious space with the mountains in the distance,' they explain. 'The building is constructed with concrete that is blended with local sand shells. The indoor space, formed by the rise and fall of the formal movements, looks similar to ancient caves.'
[via the creators project]