The permanent venue of the Yabuli Entrepreneurs Forum, designed by MAD led by Ma Yansong, has been completed and put into use.

The project is located in Yabuli Ski Resort, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. Yabuli Ski Resort is a ski resort in China, with the longest alpine ski slope in Asia and the largest comprehensive snow training center in China.

The permanent venue of the Yabuli Entrepreneurs Forum covers a total area of ​​22,000 square meters and a construction area of ​​16,000 square meters. It has more than 20 well-equipped meeting rooms, libraries, and exhibition halls. It is a building that integrates conference, museum, training, think tank, and business school functions. In addition to being the annual venue of the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum, it is also an entrepreneur museum and a national private entrepreneur training base. It is funded by the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum (CEF).

The entire building is like a large snow-white tent, gently floating down from the top of the mountain to the foot of the mountain and disappearing in the snow. The soft roof is made of white aluminum plates and continues to extend outward, as if suspended in the air, making the building look extremely light. The undulating ridgeline is a snow mark carved on the earth, and it also echoes the outline of the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

The building fully integrates the terrain and crawls on the hillside. Walking up from the bottom of the mountain, you can see the scale of the building. The functional layout and streamlines also make full use of the height difference. The main entrance is on the first floor on the east side, and the entrance on the west side is on the second floor. The entire roof curve is completed in one go, with the eaves protruding out, the farthest end is 20 meters, fully stretched, and provides shelter from wind, rain and sun in bad weather.

Sunlight shines into the lobby wrapped in wood through the central skylight, which is warm and soft. The layers of texture bring life to the space and are consistent with the design language of the white snow marks on the roof.

The lighting design of the indoor hall is integrated with the skylight ETFE curtain wall structure, and the lamps are hidden in the structural shape. The HVAC vents and various equipment terminals are also all hidden designs, ensuring the integrity and purity of the visual effect. The interior design of the hall also takes acoustic treatment into consideration, and some walls are micro-perforated with 0.4mm to meet the acoustic requirements of a temporary performance space.

The main venue, which can accommodate nearly a thousand people, is a completely column-free space. The LED screen behind the 350-seat lecture hall is designed to be openable, facing the west snow track, so that the audience can enjoy the beautiful outdoor scenery.

The east and west sides are entrance glass curtain walls, and the north and south sides are combined with the sunken courtyard landscape design. Part of the building volume is hidden in the green covering soil under the roof, becoming a landscaping. The facade heating and ventilation vents are all integrated into an integrated design, and shutter openings are set in the sunken courtyard and hidden space to ensure the integrity of the roof curtain wall.

The main space of the building is very transparent, and the floor-to-ceiling glass integrates the internal and external views into one, with the pure snow scene and the warm wooden lobby in the same composition. The central skylight of the lobby falls directly on the main structural truss and opens to the sky.

The night sky of Yabuli is a deep blue that stretches into the universe, and you can see a sky full of stars. During the day, it is a land art in the snow; at night, the warm lights are lit, like a tent with a burning bonfire. Human beings' spirit of exploring the unknown, seeking knowledge and truth, and perseverance shine here, day and night, passing on the torch, and guiding the direction for later generations.

After the project was completed, it won multiple international awards, was named the 2021 Dezeen Awards Best Cultural Building, and won the 2021 Architizer A+Awards Auditorium/Theater Category Professional Review Award.

Permanent venue of Yabuli Entrepreneurs Forum
Yabuli, China
2017-2021

Site area: 22,000 square meters
Building area: 16,198 square meters
Building height: 23.3 meters

Host partners: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Hayano Yosuke
Host associate partners: Liu Huiying, Tiffany Dahlen

Design team: Li Guangchong, Sun Shouquan, Deng Wei, Song Chi, Zhang Xiaomei, Huai Wei, Zhao Meng, Wang Shuobin, Zhang Yanru, Yuki Ishigami, Xiao Ying, Tian Jin

Owner: Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum
Grade A Design Institute: China Architecture Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd.
Curtain wall consultant: Afa Architectural Design Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Kaiteng Curtain Wall Design Consulting Co., Ltd.,
Landscape design: BJF (Baojiafeng) International Design
Interior consultant: Shanghai Modern Architectural Decoration and Environment Design Institute Co., Ltd.
Lighting design: Bipu Lighting Design Co., Ltd.
Logo design: Dongdao Brand Creative Group
Acoustic consultant: Tsinghua Tongheng Architectural Acoustics and Interior Design Institute
Green building consultant: AECOM Design and Consulting (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. Beijing Branch

About Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum: Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum was established in 2001. It is an exchange platform for entrepreneurs. It always adheres to positive energy, creativity and constructiveness, and takes "helping and caring for the growth of more emerging enterprises and entrepreneurs, and promoting entrepreneurs to become important construction forces for society and the country" as its consistent purpose.

※Images: Existing Architecture, CreatAR Images, Aoguan Architectural Vision, Blackstation Black Pixels