MAD slips through borders with Salone del Mobile installation

2016-04-13T13:53:00-04:00

Borders are often controversial and rarely flexible, but Ma Yansong of MAD has playfully reinterpreted them with his installation for the 2016 Salone del Mobile in Milan. “Borders are usually seen as something closed and unapproachable but I think it’s interesting to make borders attractive, dynamic and engaging," Yansong said about his 'Invisible Border' installation, which strings strands of EFTE across the Cortile d’Onore courtyard. "So we decided to play with the border between the historical loggias and the garden in front of it, and design a transition in-between them.”

Part shelter, part fragmented contemplation site for the sky above, the strands emit a whistling sound in the wind, and are designed to provide a surface for illumination at night (with lighting provided by iGuzzini Illuminazione).

“Our installation blurs the boundaries between the traditional and the contemporary. You see the difference in each end, but the transition is very organic," Yansong continued. "It’s ...

A bamboo skyscraper fosters public life

2015-09-01T14:20:00-04:00

A shortlisted finalist in the 2015 World Architecture Festival awards, CRG Architects' Bamboo Skyscraper is not only noteworthy for its unusual choice of material, but its vision of what constitutes a skyscraper. Instead of focusing on a single prominent tower, the design is a cluster of gradually rising volumes that interconnect and share a central vertical core. Stainless steel is used for joint material between the high-tensile-strength bamboo tubes, while EFTE is used for the facade.

Sustainability drove the initial design concept, as did a desire for fostering greater public space and communal interactions within the cluster. According to a statement by CRG, "It is up to artists, designers and architects to find an answer to the question how current technology can breathe new life into the urban environment and into public domain."

The 247,000 square meter complex, which boasts office, entertainment, and hotel/residential spaces, also has a helix slope for bicycle access.

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MAD slips through borders with Salone del Mobile installation

A bamboo skyscraper fosters public life