In 2008, MAD organized and invited 11 young international architects to carry out an urban experiment: to design the Huaxi City centre of Guiyang, in South Western China. The architects invited by MAD included: Atelier Manferdini, BIG, Dieguez Fridman, Emergent/Tom Wiscombe, Houliang Architecture,
JDS, MAD, Mass Studies, Rojkind Arquitectos, Serie, Sou Fujimoto Architects. Clearly a who’s who within the wonderful world of architecture. The masterplan was developed by Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute, Studio 6, together with MAD.
The site of Huaxi is famous for its dramatic and beautiful landscape, as well as a diverse mix of minority cultural inhabitants during its history. Its future is defined by the local government’s urban planning as a new urban centre for finance, cultural activities and tourism. MAD brought the young architects together here in the summer of 2008, for a 3-day workshop to create an experimental urban vision for Huaxi. Each architect provided a design for a single part of the masterplan, based on their own understanding and interpretation of the local natural and cultural elements. The result is a series of individual buildings, growing from the natural environment, and working together to produce a compound of diverse urban activities.
