‘UNIC,’ MAD Architects’ first built project in Europe, is nearing completion. Located in Paris’ 17th arrondissement, Clichy-Batignolles is a newly developing area of the city. ‘UNIC’ emerges as part of the mixed-use masterplan envisioned adjacent to the Martin Luther King Park – a 10-hectare green space.

Led by Ma Yansong, MAD was awarded the project in 2012 through an international design competition in collaboration with local French firm Biecher Architectes.
Acording the authors, unlike the static Haussmann apartment blocks that define Paris, the project proposed an interaction with nature in the urban environment. Its undulating floor plates form a series of terraces, creating dynamic spaces within and expansive gardens and balconies on the exterior. Each asymmetrical level slightly tapers as the building ascends, with the upper floors boasting panoramic views of the surrounding city and the Eiffel Tower.

Clichy-Batignolles provides the opportunity for French and international architecture firms to collaborate and create a new part of Paris. The neighbourhood re-activation plan includes construction of new residential buildings, as well as other community resources.


‘UNIC’ Residential by MAD. Photograph by Jared Chulski.

The area was divided into nine plots which were each assigned to a group comprised of architecture companies and developers. After winning the competition, these groups met regularly to discuss each team’s project within the bigger scheme of the neighbourhood. They particularly participated in a series of workshops to explore topics from the macro-scale urban plans to micro-scale details, such as sustainable community development, resource sharing, energy management, and population demographics.

MAD’s design was the result of these workshops with the developers, architects and the Clichy-Batignolles inhabitants. In addition to which, the residential plot for ‘UNIC’ includes both private housing and affordable housing, thus enriching the dynamics of the neighbourhood.

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Arquitectos
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MAD Architects. Principal Partners in Charge.- Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano. Associate Partners in Charge.- Andrea d’Antrassi, Flora Lee. Team Coordinator - Executive Architect.- BIECHER Architectes.
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Design team
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Zhao Wei, Wu Kaicong, Daniel Gillen, Jiang Bin, Tristan Brasseur, Juan Valeros, Gustavo Alfred van Staveren, Xin Dogterom, Juan Pablo, Cesar d Pena Del Rey, Natalia Giacomino, Torsten Radunski, Rozita Kahirtseva
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Collaborators
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Structure Engineers.- BECIP – BET Structure. MEP Consultant.- ESPACE TEMPS – BET Fluides. Landscape Designer.- PHYTOLAB – BET Paysagiste. Interior Designer.- Charles Zana. Project Management.- Artelia.
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Client
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Emerige
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Construction
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Vinci Sicra Ile-de-France
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Dates
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2012-2019
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Area
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Site Area.- 1,033 sqm. Building Area.- 6,600 sqm. Building Height.- 50 m
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mad is a Beijing-based architecture design office dedicated to creating innovative projects. Founded by Ma Yansong in 2004, MAD Architects is led by Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, and Yosuke Hayano. It is committed to developing futuristic, organic, technologically advanced designs that embody a contemporary interpretation of the Eastern affinity for nature. With a vision for the city of the future based on the spiritual and emotional needs of residents, MAD endeavours to create a balance between humanity, the city, and the environment.

MAD's projects encompass urban planning, urban complexes, municipal buildings, museums, theatres, concert halls, and housing, as well as art and design. Their projects are located in China, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States. In 2006, MAD won the design competition for the Absolute Towers in Mississauga, Canada. Through this, MAD became the first Chinese architecture firm to build a significant high-rise project abroad. In 2014, MAD was selected as the principal designer for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, USA, becoming the first China-based architecture firm to design an overseas cultural landmark. MAD’s signature cultural projects include Ordos Museum (2011, China), Harbin Opera House (2015, China), Tunnel of Light (2018, Japan), China Philharmonic Concert Hall (under construction), Yiwu Grand Theater (under construction), FENIX Museum of Migration in Rotterdam (under construction), Cloudscape of Haikou (2021, China), and Shenzhen Bay Culture Square (under construction). Other urban projects include the Clover House kindergarten (2015, Japan), Chaoyang Park Plaza (2017, China), China Entrepreneur Forum Conference Centre (2021, China), Jiaxing Train Station (under construction), Quzhou Sports Campus (under construction), and Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center (under construction), among others.

While practising architecture, MAD documents and discusses its reflections on architecture, culture, and arts through publications, architectural exhibitions, as well as academic lectures and presentations. MAD’s publications include Mad Dinner, Bright City, MA YANSONG: From (Global) Modernity to (Local) Tradition, Shanshui City, and MAD X. MAD has organized and participated in several contemporary art and design exhibitions, including MAD X, a solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 2019; Shanshui City, at UCCA in 2014; Feelings are Facts, a spatial experience exhibition with artist Ólafur Eliasson at UCCA in 2010; and MAD in China, a solo exhibition at the Danish Architectural Center, Copenhagen in 2007. MAD has participated in significant exhibitions at several iterations of the Venice Architecture Biennale and Milan Design Week. MAD has also participated in exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Copenhagen), and MAXXI (Rome). An array of MAD’s architecture models have been acquired by the Centre Pompidou and M+ Museum (Hong Kong) as part of their permanent collections.

MAD has offices in Beijing (China), Jiaxing (China), Los Angeles (USA), and Rome (Italy).

Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano and Qun Dand.

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Ma Yansong is a Beijing-born architect (1975) recognized as an important voice in a new generation of architects. He graduated from the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Ma attended Yale University after receiving the American Institute of Architects Scholarship for Advanced Architecture Research in 2001 and holds a master's degree in Architecture from Yale. 

He shares his knowledge as an adjunct professor at the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Tsinghua University, and the University of Southern California. Ma Yansong's journey is a continuous narrative unfolding, exploring innovation and pushing the boundaries of what we perceive as the built environment.

Since the founding of MAD in 2004, his works in architecture and art have been widely published and exhibited. Ma Yansong was awarded the 2006 Architecture League Young Architects Award. In 2008 he was selected as one of the twenty most influential Young Architects today by ICON magazine and Fast Company named him one of the ten most creative people in architecture in 2009. In 2010 he became the first architect from China to receive a RIBA fellowship.

“I work with emotion and with the context. When I design a building, I close my eyes and feel as if I saw a virtual world which lays half way between the city, the nature and the land. It goes from large scale to small scale. Many things travel in front of my eyes; I feel them and try to find the way to express my feelings. The language I use is the least important of it all. It does not matter whether they are straight lines, curves... I only intend for people to feel the same or to find something unexpected” says Ma Yansong. “MAD is an attitude, a posture towards architecture, towards society. Through our work we want people to be inspired by a place through local nature, time and space”, he states.

Photograph by Daniel J.Allen

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Christian Biecher, graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville. He worked with the architect Bernard Tschumi in Paris and New York, and taught the project at Columbia University. He is first noticed for achievements in interior architecture such as the Pierre Hermé pastry rue de Vaugirard or the Office of Tourism and Congress in Paris. He then devoted many accomplishments in Asia - TUR buildings in Tokyo and SORA in Shiki (Japan), Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong and Fauchon in Beijing - and in Europe - Harvey Nichols in Dublin and London, and the rehabilitation of the Stock Exchange. Budapest.
Then follow, the Animation Center and the Place-des-Fêtes concert hall in Paris 19e (2007), the Printemps building in Strasbourg, the Konnect buildings in Marseille and the Novotel hotel, boulevard Brune in Paris 14th.

In June 2012, the agency BiecherArchitectes is the winner, with the Chinese agency MAD, of the contest for the design of a plot of land, welcoming private housing, social housing, nursery, shops, and metro station in the ZAC Clichy-Batignolles in Paris 17th.

Today, the agency develops a variety of programs for hotel, housing and equipment use, in Strasbourg, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Paris and Grand Paris. It focuses on forms of innovation in terms of use and sustainable development in its environmental, social and economic components. In urban planning, the agency participated in the urban renewal plan of the Bois-Sauvage district in Évry and conducted the master plan for the modernization and extension of the town of La Grande-Motte.

Christian Biecher has designed objects and furniture for many brands in the world, for the Movements Modernes gallery, CatBerro and the Manufacture de Sèvres.

He was the winner of the “Albums de la jeune architecture” (1998), elected “Creator of the Year” in 2002 (Maison & Objet, Paris). The Minister of Culture awarded him the medal of Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2009 and Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2011.

A monograph, Christian Biecher architect, written by Philippe Trétiack, was published by AAM editions in 2009.
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Published on: July 21, 2019
Cite: "MAD’s ‘UNIC’ Residential, First Built Project in Europe, last steps before completed" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/mads-unic-residential-first-built-project-europe-last-steps-completed> ISSN 1139-6415
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