MAD unveils its first residential project in the United States, "Hill Court." Located in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, this residential design embodies MAD's core design philosophy: creating a living environment that integrates nature and community in a high-density city.

The 18 residential units of "Hill Courtyard" are located above the street-facing commercial space on the ground floor. The undulating three-dimensional skyline is like the continuous mountains near Los Angeles, forming a small hill in the center of the city. The crystal clear pitched roof sky villas and the umbrella-shaped trees in the air form a unique symbol and become part of the rich neighborhood scenery of Wilshire Avenue.

This "village on the hill" provides a variety of residential types for urban residents: including 3 townhouses, 5 independent sky villas, 2 studio apartments and 8 high-end apartments. Each household has an independent balcony facing the central courtyard, which cultivates community neighborhood relations while maintaining their privacy. The glass exterior wall of the villa is not transparent in the direction of the street, but transparent in the direction of the private garden, townhouse and apartment. When the lights come on, people living here can feel the delicate balance between public and private.

The exterior wall of the building is covered with water-saving plant walls of local drought-tolerant cacti and vines. This "vertical garden" that undulates along the exterior wall extends the indoor space to the outdoor balcony, creating a green visual barrier from nature for apartment residents. The plant wall above the Wilshire Avenue entrance rises along the ground and covers the glass door entrance on the first floor, just like the hedge fence outside the local building, sheltering a secret garden. It is full of local vegetation and green trees, with a waterfall pool in the center. The water flows slowly from the sky garden to the lobby courtyard, and people returning home feel like they have entered a valley.

In today's high-density cities, modernist and postmodernist residential models often put the game of function and form above the relationship between people and the environment. In "Hill Courtyard", MAD attempts to explore a new architectural model for American West Coast cities such as Los Angeles - a residential environment with the spiritual core of nature.

"Hill Courtyard" will break ground in October this year. The project has just won the "Design Concept" category award of the "45th Los Angeles Architecture Award" in Los Angeles.

Hill Courtyard
Location: Los Angeles, USA
Type: Commercial, Residential
Time: 2013-2016

Site Area: 25,900 sq. ft.
Building Area: 48,000 sq. ft.
Building Height: 60 ft.

Lead Architect: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano
Associate Partner: Lu Junliang
Design Team: Li Guangchong, Flora Lee, Cesar D Pena del Rey, Jeffrey Miner, Joanna Tan, Chris Hung-Yu Chen

Owner: Palisades Capital Partners LLC
Cooperating Architect: Gruen Associates
Landscape Architect: Gruen Associates
Interior Designer: Rottet Studio
Structural Engineer: John Labib & Associates
MEP Engineer: Breen Engineering Inc.
Civil Engineer: Breen Engineering Inc.
Environmental Engineer: Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.