HOUSES THAT FORM A HILL MAD’s mission to create high-density, viable INTERVIEW: MA economically YANSONG housing that is also architecturally innovative led to the design of Fake Hills; a project completed in 2015. This development, located in the coastal Chinese city of Beihai, sits on an 800m-long narrow oceanfront site. The fundamental geometry of the scheme combines two opposing typologies, the high rise and the groundscraper, resulting in the form of a hill. The continuous platform along the roof acts as a public space, with gardens, tennis courts and swimming pools on top of the man-made hills looking out towards the ocean.
PHOTO BY XIA ZHI
Ma believes people have become too conservative about new architectural ideas
architecture. Progressing beyond that is just a matter of the speed of change, how much these people can take and our ability to judge the right thing to do. It’s always the same when we’re talking about the future. There’s a risk, but we have to trust our instincts.” This desire to push boundaries is perhaps the legacy of Ma’s time studying under Zaha Hadid at Yale, and later working at her London office in the days before MAD. Hadid’s own bold ambition and uncompromising approach often meant it took years for the rest of the world to catch up and understand what she was trying to achieve. “Zaha was an artist, so controversy was part of her life and everything was based on how people judged her taste,” he reflects. “She had such a strong and independent sensibility, you either like it or you hate it. But Zaha’s career – from being very far outside the mainstream to becoming a widely celebrated figure towards the end her life – already shows the transformation in our society. Her work, as well as the work of others like Frank Gehry, shows that architecture really needs diversity, but also needs to be sensitive to the future.” Following Hadid’s death, Ma released a tribute in which he praised her battle for progress and remarked that “she loved and embraced the world with sensitivity and criticality.” This is something he aspires to achieve in his own body of work. “We’re always looking back and questioning,” he offers, when asked to summarise his architectural philosophy. “Questions like why did some fantastic gardens or cities become cultural heritage? What can we learn from them? How can we be inspired by them to create better future cities? “I think we at MAD all want to look to the past, and then find another angle to create a fresh perspective on the future.”
CLAD mag 2016 ISSUE 3
The Fake Hills residential development in Beihai, China, features public spaces on the roof
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