MAD Architects has completed Roca’s Beijing Gallery in Dongzhimen, near the Beijing East Second Ring Road. The project consists of an unobstructed gallery space that opens up to its urban environment; behind double-height glazing, the interior walls of both of the gallery’s floors, finished with a screen of LEDs, become a new facade for the city.
“I hope that the Roca Beijing Gallery can become a positive, vivid corner of the urban community, connecting people and city in the simplest way,” says Ma Yansong, MAD Architect's founding principal.

The multimedia surface is intended to provide spectators accessible, vibrant glimpses into projected realities that challenge their senses and their rectilinear environments – creating an atmosphere that is a fluid mixture of light, movement, and people. The content of the screens, such as simulated depictions of people using the showrooms, seemingly unaware of their visitors or any observation, playfully connects the Roca Beijing Gallery’s internal spaces. An intentional ambiguity of “interior” and “exterior” is perceptible for those passing the gallery, resulting from the movement of nearby pedestrians and the silhouettes of those inside, a movement further distorted by the LED screens.

The gallery also projects images of nature, simulating different weather conditions and seasons--such as the falling of rain, or the emulation of sunshine to address a smoggy day. Designed by art critic and curator Jérôme Sans, the installation changes with the passing of seconds, minutes, and days.   

In designing the sixth of Roca’s global galleries, MAD has joined a series of renowned designers, such as Zaha Hadid Architects and Charles Ferrater, who have designed galleries for Roca in the past.
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Architects
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MAD Architects – Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano

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Design Team
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Yukan Yanagawa, Hiroki Fujino, Yin Ming, Li Yuanhao, and Sear Nee
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Area
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800 sqm
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Dates
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Completed.- 2017
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Program
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Showroom, Expositor
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MAD Office, Beijing, China. MAD is a Beijing-based architecture design office dedicated to creating innovative projects. The firm combines a sophisticated design philosophy with advanced technology in addressing and furthering issues in contemporary architecture and urbanity.

The firm has been the recipient of numerous awards including the 2006 Architectural League of New York's Young Architects Forum Award.

MAD's ongoing projects include the international competition-winning Absolute Tower in Toronto, Canada; The Tianjin Sinosteel International Plaza, a 320M tall tower in Tianjin, China; the Mongolian Museum in Inner Mongolia, China, and a private villa in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The firm has also won numerous international design competitions, including the 2006 Absolute Tower Competition in Toronto; the 2005 Solar Plaza Competition in Guangzhou, China, and the 2004 Shanghai National Software Outsourcing Base.

MAD's work has been published worldwide, and the office has also presented its designs in a series of exhibitions. In 2006, MAD was shown at the ‘MAD in China' exhibition in Venice during the Architecture Biennial, and the ‘MAD Under Construction' exhibition at the Tokyo Gallery in Beijing. In March of 2007, MAD will be shown at ‘MAD.exe' an exhibition at the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano and Qun Dand.

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Beijing-born architect Ma Yansong is recognized as an important voice in a new generation of architects. Since the founding of MAD in 2004, his works in architecture and art have been widely published and exhibited. 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 masters degree in Architecture from Yale. He has since taught architecture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

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.

Photo © Daniel J.Allen

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Published on: June 3, 2017
Cite: "New Roca’s Beijing Gallery completed by MAD Architects" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/new-rocas-beijing-gallery-completed-mad-architects> ISSN 1139-6415
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