Beijing-based architecture firm MAD, the authors of a skyscraper complex currently planned for the city that's based on traditional Chinese landscape paintings, have the go-ahead to bring the same style of stratified, mountainous towers to Nanjing on an even greater scale. Design Boom reports that construction is already underway on the Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, the design for which was unveiled in-full in an exhibition at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. With a jaw-dropping estimated overall building area of 6,000,000 square feet (that's counting above and below-ground sections, spread out across a 1,000,000-square-foot site area) the project should put MAD on the map if it ever reaches its projected completion date of 2017, even more-so than floating museums and donut-shaped Sheratons.
According to MAD, the project is not only based upon the look of of "Shanshui"-style landscape painting, but is meant to embody their concept of the "Shanshui city," which "adapts the traditional Chinese Shanshui ethos of spiritual harmony between nature and humanity to the modern urban environment." With the Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, that concept is extended through six lots connected by curving pathways, small parks, and a raised public plaza. The tallest of the development's many mixed-use towers—which are pretty similar to what Bjarke Ingels is going for in Taiwan—is set to reach 393 feet, with a community of low buildings situated at the center of the site.
· MAD presents nanjing zendai himalayas center at venice biennale [Design Boom]
· Beijing Park is Inspired by Ancient Landscape Paintings [Curbed National]