MAD Architects has shared new images and project details of its upcoming multipurpose Aranya "Cloud Center" in the port city of Qinhuangdao, China.  

The firm says it is nearly complete with the construction phase that was begun in March 2021 in the coastal area roughly 160 miles east of Beijing. 

Featuring a floating cloud-like grand hall, column-free gallery space, and theater, the 2,579-square-meter (27,760-square-foot) facility will serve as the centerpiece of a growing artistic community, attempting to blur the boundary between architecture and nature in a smart update to founder Ma Yansong’s well-established approach to the design of intimate spatial experiences.

Per the firm: "The Cloud Center is designated to have a singular architecture becoming the component to a larger context. With a reflective pond, a garden, and surrounding woods, the entirety forms a peaceful dreamscape envisioned by Ma Yansong. Inspired by the shape and lightweight appearance of clouds, the gallery in the main volume of the architecture was engineered to appear as though it is floating above the rolling landscape that surrounds it."

"This effect was made possible through the creation of a number of structural overhangs that are embedded within the envelope as an internal space frame. The main and secondary truss suspensions are welded to the steel structure of the core, the largest of which are nearly 30 meters in length."

"The main volume is clad in a curtain wall of white glass panels that have been tempered, laminated, and laser-printed to reflect the sunlight, sky, and verdant landscape that surrounds it, which was also designed by MAD Architects as a tranquil oasis that contrasts the busy city life just beyond its perimeter; like a real cloud, the building will take on the colors of the sky throughout the day thanks to its glossy paneling system."

"The 'floating' effect is further accomplished by the use of floor-to-ceiling glass on the ground floor beneath it, where the grand hall occupies the majority of the building’s footprint. Because of the same structural space frame that supports the gallery, the grand hall is also virtually column-free, thus allowing the space to be animated by the efforts of the community and the reflective pond toward the entrance."

MAD is currently in the process of completing a number of other eye-catching international projects, including its dramatic chasmed-facade One River North residential development in Denver, red-ringed "treatise on social housing" in Beijing, and the anticipated Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. 

A topping out is expected in the near future. The firm says it will surround the new Cloud Center with a landscaped "white stone garden" when the project is finally completed by the end of 2023.