MAD scatters boulder-like galleries across green-roofed museum in Shenzhen
Architecture studio MAD has unveiled Shenzhen Bay Culture Square in China, a design museum formed of stone-like volumes perched atop an undulating green roof.
Situated in Houhai in Shenzhen's Nanshan District, MAD designed the museum to be a hub for design and culture as well as a coastal public space for city residents to enjoy.
"Much of my work is guided by the same question: can public space be more open and equal?" said MAD founder Ma Yansong.
"Shenzhen is a young, efficient city, and this site was entirely reclaimed from the sea," he continued. "How can our design turn ancient nature into people's imagination of the future, and make a large cultural building feel intimate, in service of human experience?"
Flanked by a cluster of skyscrapers on one side and Talent Park on the other side, the Shenzhen Bay Culture Square contains exhibition galleries, education spaces, a design library and a multifunctional theatre.
An undulating green roof spans over the site, concealing much of the museum space below ground and providing winding routes between the city and coastline.
Atop the green roof are boulder-like volumes clad in polished granite, which decrease in height from a 28-metre-tall gallery at the city end of the site, to a long, low-slung domed gallery positioned towards the adjacent park.
The building was designed to lie low in the landscape to stay out of the flight path of migratory birds travelling the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.
"By placing the building volumes beneath the landscape, the project leaves the ground to nature, creating an open waterfront park where people can freely walk, explore, and linger," said MAD.
"Visitors enter from every direction, climb the gentle slopes, follow the winding roof paths, and reach lookouts over the bay."
In the subterranean galleries, the concrete structure was left exposed, with lights and services tucked into the ceiling.
A ring-shaped atrium encircles one of the stone-like volumes, connecting the underground galleries and drawing daylight in.
A shallow pool sits at the centre of the site, and an outdoor plaza was designed to host outdoor performances, art markets and festivals.
Native species of planting populate the roof, and the landscaping abutting the wetland area of the adjacent park gradually steps down towards the shore, designed to blend into it rather than forming a hard border.
Other projects recently completed by MAD in China include a bulbous science museum in Haikou and a curving headquarters building in Shenzhen.
The photography is courtesy of MAD.
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