Ma Yansong: "My impression of Huangshan Taiping Lake has always been vague. Every time I go there, it presents a different view, so it is a bit mysterious to me. It is very much like ancient landscape paintings, never realistic or copied, everything is free and imaginative. The vague feeling is full of poetry. It is hard to see clearly and understand, so people often stare at the layers of mountains and water in a daze. They are not just looking at the scenery, they also see themselves, which is different from themselves living in big cities."

Huangshan and the "World Cultural Heritage" Hongcun and Xidi Ancient Town are well-known to the world for their strong and simple cultural atmosphere and beautiful and peaceful natural environment. The Huangshan Taiping Lake Apartment, designed by MAD led by Ma Yansong, was completed and put into use this year.

Huangshan Taiping Lake Apartment is part of the overall planning of Huangshan Taiping Lake Tourist Area designed by MAD. The site was originally a small hill covered with tea fields, with winding paths leading to a secluded place. It stands by Taiping Lake. Between the mountains and waters, there are poems and artistic conception from paintings by poets and painters. It is a spiritual realm that people feel in nature.

MAD's design naturally scatters 10 buildings of different heights along the lakeside on the ridge of Taiping Lake, just like a part of the mountain, slowly "growing" due to the mountain. The different architectural shapes of each apartment building and the different horizontal height differences between apartment buildings have an interesting but harmonious response. The whole is like a new type of vertical village, different from traditional villages. Buildings are built in the mountains and waters, and are built like mountains and waters, blending with the natural world.

All rooms in the ten apartment buildings are surrounded by mountains and lakes, and you can enjoy the beautiful scenery of the lake and the rolling mountains in the distance. The organic and flowing lines of the balconies on each floor of the building are designed according to the original contour lines of the hills where they are located. Each line is unique, which is the best combination of architecture and terrain. The wide balcony extends the interior space of the apartment to the outdoors. People in it feel like they are really living in nature and can communicate with the mountains, lakes, sky and earth at any time.

The buildings are connected by natural landscapes, corridors and trails, where people can walk to the small dock by the lake or climb up to see the distant view. The mountains, water, sky and earth are like illusions, blurred but all real.

Nature is what people expect from today’s living environment. As the latest built practice of the “mountain and water city” design concept proposed by Ma Yansong, Huangshan Taiping Lake Apartment explores different possibilities of housing from another dimension – residential buildings in a pure natural environment should be a response and emphasis on nature and the environment, and should also establish and deepen the emotional connection between residents and nature.

Huangshan Taiping Lake Apartment
Huangshan, China
2009-2017

Overall planning area: 1,186,520 square meters
Overall planning floor area: 613,200 square meters

Phase I apartment floor area: 189,882 square meters
Phase I apartment floor area: 69,586 square meters

Design team: Philippe Brysse, Tiffany Dahlen, Lu Yuenan, Wang Deyuan, Jakob Beer, Zhao Wei, Li Guangchong, Kayla Lee, Lu Jiaying, Alejandra Obregon, Zeng Lingdong, Achille Tortini, Matthew Rosen, Gustavo Maya, Zheng Fang, Sarita Tejasmit, Augustus Chan, Jeong-Eun Lee

Owner: Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Co., Ltd.
Grade A Design Institute: Shanghai Hans Architectural Design Office
Interior Design: Suzhou Golden Mantis Architectural Decoration Co., Ltd.
Landscape Design: Shanghai Guangmu Landscape Design Consulting Co., Ltd.
Curtain Wall Design: Xi'an Aircraft Industry Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd.
Lighting Design: Shanghai Meifang Lighting Engineering Co., Ltd.