Shanshui City is the main ideology of MAD, which is derived from traditional Chinese culture and affection for nature. MAD has made a series of designs to reflect this theory, which bring nature back to urban area and take use of ecological technology to develop the sustainable and natural living condition for future life. An exhibition of Shanshui City was hold in 2013, and a project named Shanshui City was designed for Guiyang, China.

 

— Xuyun Liu

 

RESEARCH RESOURCES

 

“Ma Yansong’s ‘Shanshui City’ Book Launch and Exhibition Held in Beijing.” 2013. MAD architects news. June 6.

http://www.i-mad.com/ennews_details.aspx?id=114.

This is a news about the Ma Yansong’s “Shanshui City” Book Launch and Exhibition, which introduces the ideology of Shanshui City to the public.

 

“Ma Yansong / MAD architects: shan shui city at designboom conversation.” 2012. Designboom. December 11.

http://www.designboom.com/architecture/mad-architects-shan-shui-city-guiyang-china/.

The project Shanshui city in Guiyang well expresses MAD’s ideology of Shanshui city. This designboom article introduces the information and theory of the project, combined with other MAD’s designs.

 

Heathcote, Edwin. “Conquering the West.” Financial Times, Mar 19, 2011. http://search.proquest.com/docview/857731485?accountid=14214.

This article is mostly based on Ma Yansong’s speech, which suggests his idea of shanshui city.  He wants to bring nature back to life combining Chinese traditional culture to design the special oriental architecture model for future.

 

 

 

MAD made the ecological skyscraper design Urban Forest in Chongqing, China. The project breaks down the old typology of skyscraper and twists the building with a dynamic rhythm. It brings nature back into the urban life via the floating gardens and forests. The non-linear design imitates the form the mountain and is inspired by the traditional Chinese mountain and water paintings. It tries to re-express the affection for nature in modern urban area through the ecological techniques and set a future model for urban landmark, which could be a living organism other than a complex of steel and concrete.

 

— Xuyun Liu

 

RESEARCH RESOURCES

 

“Urban Forest.” MAD architects.

http://www.i-mad.com/ennews_details.aspx?id=122#works_details?wtid=4&id=50.

This is a brief description of the project form MAD architects website. It reveals the background and the main theory for the design. It shows the main idea of the scheme is to express the affection for nature.

 

“Urban Forest by MAD.” 2009.  De Zeen Magazine. December 10. http://www.dezeen.com/2009/12/10/urban-forest-by-mad/.

The short introduction to the project from the web magazine includes a lot of images, orthographic drawings and diagrams, which help to show more information about the building, especially the structure system to support the floating vertical forests.

 

Wolf, Kathleen L. “THE URBAN FOREST.” Communities & Banking 24, no. 2 (Spring, 2013): 25-27. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1315339732?accountid=14214.

This is a short article about the benefits and importance of “urban forest” in general meaning. Though the word “urban forest” is different from the project, the article could help to show the meaning of forests in urban areas, which may serve as a theoretical foundation for the design.

 

A cultural reaction, pertaining to social and biological interactions in a design strategy of architecture, is a form of Organicism. This is when an architectural design as a whole uses the biology of living organisms, such as obtaining energy from the sun, waterproof skin/fur, and bone/muscle structure, to utilizes their effects into a manufactured design.

Examples:

• Bullet Train: Nose Like a Kingfisher Beak
• Butterfly Wings: ACTION: Analyze the makeup of a butterfly wing. EFFECT: new material with microscopic grooves, ridges and bumps. USE: The grooves force water to bead without soaking through the material — making it effectively waterproof. Cladding for buildings, thus not requiring paint or waterproofing.

A cultural reaction, pertaining to sustainable design strategies in architecture, is a form of Organicism. This is when an architectural design as a whole responds to the surrounding culture by sustaining and providing for both the environment and any adjacent living organisms.

 

An example of sustainable design strategies is seen in Madagascar, Australia and Africa by the natives’ utilization of the Baobab Tree. The tree is known as the “The Tree of Life” for reasons in which it is one of the ideal cases of Organicism. This tree helps sustain life by providing fruit that is enriched with vitamin C and can be hollowed out for a home and not die. These trees can hold up to 60 people within. It also provide protection because the outer shell of the tree fire resistant. The bark can also be used for ropes and clothing. This tree alone can provide most of the needs of a community, whether that is architecturally or nutritiously.

A cultural reaction, pertaining to social preservation design strategies in architecture, is a form of Organicism. This is when an architectural design as a whole preserves the memories and techniques, such as original work, thoughts and philosophies previously encountered by a society, to maintain and grow ones own social group.

 

An example of this social preservation seen in an architectural design is the Tijibaou Culture Center, designed by Renzo Piano. The intention of this building is to record and preserve the traditions and culture of the indigenous tribe, Kanaks. The set of buildings is organic by nature because of the specific responses it takes in relation to the local culture. This is seen in the buildings depiction of settlement patterns in the local villages by replicating the clusters of “cases”. The cases within the villages are woven palm fronds and are reinterpreted in the design as mahogany wood. The group of buildings continues to use the adjacent culture and traditions in its design by the materials, patterns and form.

A cultural reaction, pertaining to environment design strategies in architecture, is a form of Organicism. This is when an architectural design as a whole reacts to the different elements, such as solar, water, wind and earth, to utilizes or controls their effects on living organisms.

 

An example of environmental design strategies in architecture that react organically is the Maison Tropicale, which was designed and commissioned by Jean Prouvé in 1949. This prefabricated tropical house is described as a humanistic response to nature in an architectural form. This response to nature is done by embracing the needs of the occupant through the utilization of its context. The design of the home reacts by the form of the roof, the specific openings for passive ventilation, the blue tinted glass for visual needs, the specifically placed louvers for shading and the raised platform for safety.

A short film chronicling the creation of the Silk Pavilion.

http://vimeo.com/67177328

The Silk Pavilion, created by the brilliant minds at MIT Media Lab, is an extraordinary example of how a biological process (in this case, silk produced by silk worms) can be harnessed to produce naturally 3D printed structures. Taking their inspiration from the way silkworms weave cocoons, the pavilion consists of three elements: a steel frame, woven threads (produced by a robot arm) wrapping the frame and 6,500 silk worms released onto the woven threads. The silk worms then, through their instinctual prowess of locating darker areas of the pavilion’s surface, weave their silk web onto the primary structure of the frame. Acting as “biological 3D printers”, the silk worms could ideally be utilized in ways that seamlessly merge their instinctual biological processes with powerful fabrication techniques to produce an architecture that deals dynamically with issues such as structural loads, lighting levels and ventilation. In theory, these tiny little builders, in conjunction with intelligent computational design, could produce pavilions, houses, and even buildings in a completely organic way-be it biomimicrally, biologically, or both.

                                                                                                                                — Andrew Scalisi

RESEARCH RESOURCES

“Silk Pavilion / MIT Media Lab.” ArchDaily. Accessed August 30, 2013.

http://www.archdaily.com/384271/silk-pavilion-mit-media-lab/

This blog article articulates the success of MIT Media Lab seamlessly meshing scientific research, digital design and biomimetic construction to create organic architecture in its truest sense.  It also shows the great progressive thought in “connecting the dots” between technology and biology. In focusing primarily on the paths of the silk worms, the article reveals that when placed in the right conditions, biology can actually embrace and work with technology rather than rejecting it. This truly reveals the inherent complexity that is coupled with producing contemporary organic architecture.

“The Silk Pavilion by MIT Media Lab.” Designboom | Architecture & Design Magazine. Accessed August 30, 2013.

http://www.designboom.com/technology/the-silk-pavilion-by-mit-media-labs/

This brief blog posting describes the form of the primary structure on which the silk worms were to operate on.  Carefully designed for precise calibration, an algorithm was utilized to calculate the predicted areas of dense silk production by the worms.  This shows us that even though there is an innate instinctual capacity within biology, technology can always override this and ironically dictate those instincts, creating a paradoxical artificially-biological construct.

“Watch 6,500 Silkworms 3D-Print A Silk Pavilion At MIT – Explore, Collect and Source Architecture & Interiors.” Architizer. Accessed August 30, 2013.

http://www.designboom.com/technology/the-silk-pavilion-by-mit-media-labs/

This article discusses the fabricating power of biological processes. Likening the production of silk as “3D printing their own houses for ages,” it begins to suggest that MakerBots aren’t necessarily the only means of producing 3D printed architecture.  This is an important notion because, through this experiment, we now have insights into how technology and biology can be merged to produce architecture or architectural elements that are otherwise completely artificial and non-organic.

Philip Beesley, the creative mind of Radiant Soil, discusses the conceptual and scientific basis for the installation he describes as a “near-living architecture.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNZwrC_IuX0#t=391

Designed by Canadian-based architect and artist Philip Beesly, Radiant Soil is an art installation designed to test biomemetic techniques and biological processes which could lead to an architecture that is nearly living. In taking a hylozoic approach, which Beesly describes as “life coming out of material”, components such as metal, polymer and glass are translated biomemetically to track human motion and respond to our movements. In a broad sense, the installation aims to mimic a functioning biological system which can interact with people. In a micro sense, the project defines several suspended filter layers which contain a “near-living carbon capture metabolism.” Equipped with a shape-memory system, the individual components have the capability to react to movement, causing an interdependent chain reaction of results based on the input of human motion as stimuli. The basic premise here is that this experiment could become a possible future for organic architecture; one in which building systems can respond to certain factors such as environmental control or human ergonomics.  It should be seen not as a method of building production, but rather as a medium of production.  It could be an architectural agent through which spatial factors of comfort, performability and control could be implemented within the production of architecture, rather than producing the architecture itself by its own processes.

— Andrew Scalisi

RESEARCH RESOURCES

Grdadolnik, Helena. “It’s Alive!” Canadian Interiors 47, no. 8 (December 2010): 20–22.

http://search.proquest.com/docview/833844756?accountid=14214

This short article gives insights into Beesley’s vision for what architecture could be through a hylozoic approach: one that responds to light, heat and perhaps even human mood.   One important aspect to note is that the installation is not entirely predictable, in that it does not always respond accordingly to human motion in a timely fashion.  This, however, reinforces the idea of it’s being “alive” rather than being simply programmed.

“Philip Beesley Architect Inc.” Accessed August 29, 2013.

http://www.philipbeesleyarchitect.com/sculptures/1218_Radiant-Soil_Paris/index.php

This project descriptor emphasizes Beesley’s idea of the hyolozoic.  He views even the most inanimate of objects to contain such richness of life that they could pervade the process of architecture in extremely progressive and interactive ways.

“This Bizarre Installation Mimics a Real Biological Ecosystem.” Accessed August 29, 2013.

http://gizmodo.com/this-bizarre-installation-mimics-a-real-biological-ecos-1148097140?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29

This blog post can be described as “Beesley’s hyolozoism for dummies.”  It is a playful and graspable explanation of the architect’s science project: “the installation mimics a living, breathing biological system that actually interacts with people…make what you will of the project’s deeper meaning, but to us, it’s totally amazing.”

 

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SILK PAVILION from Mediated Matter Group on Vimeo.

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RESEARCH RESOURCES

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