Starting April 11th, MAD projects “Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza”, “Absolute Towers”, and “Hutong Bubble” are put on exhibition for one month in the Berlin Chinese Culture Center’s “Chinese Shanshui City Design Exhibition”. Dang Qun, one of the principals of MAD Architects, also spoke at the opening ceremony of “Chinese Shanshui City Design Forum”. Other attending guests included: Dai Zhikang, Chen Bochong, Eduard Kögel, Peter Ruge, etc.

Shanshui City is an ideal regarding future human habitats. What is the ideal state of a human habitat? How can we build a city as a rational human habitat, rather than an emotionless one constructed from reinforced concrete? That is what this exhibition is testing and exploring. This exhibition focuses on the environmental and urban space problems in the process of fast urbanization in modern China, and experimenting with the idea of merging Shanshui with modern city development together.

In recent years MAD has been continuously advancing the practice of creating the “Shanshui City”. It surpasses the concept of architecture as “machines to live in”, and focuses on the emotional connection between architecture and human emotion. It combines city density, function, and Shanshui sense of nature, and puts importance on human spirit. The idea of Shanshui City is rooted in Chinese culture and grounded in the reality of modern cities. It aims to explore a new direction of city development, an urban space that is open, poetic, and people-oriented.