Audi City, Beijing Concept Store, China Shop, Chinese Architecture, Architect, Design

Audi City Beijing : Concept Store

Chinese Retail Building – design by Ma Yansong / MAD Architects

4 Mar 2013

Audi City Beijing

Design: Ma Yansong – MAD Architects

Locatin; Beijing, China

Oriental Plaza Installation

Audi City Beijing is the first collaboration between Audi and architect Ma Yansong and Audi’s second concept store after London last summer. The installation at ‘Oriental Plaza’ in the city center of Beijing is a fusion between Audi’s sophisticated vehicles built around the latest technologies.

images from architect

The work of Ma Yansong is centered on the human spirit, refashioning traditional orders of space in pursuit of enhanced communal interaction with nature. “Shanshui City,” is the first collaboration between the two; it explores a virtual city, a modern city in the ripples of the reflection, reflecting our imagination for the future and the introspection of facts. The poetic city is in the reflections and the modern city upside down on the fog screen. The sudden emotional changes through atmosphere, created by light and video, delineate scenarios in which natural elements are transforming the urban space.

The classical cities are about the divine while typical contemporary cities are about power and capital, the functional and elementary necessities. Looking at the city of today, the future according to Ma Yansong should ‘[…] belong to human and human emotions, not to technological bravado to display wealth or power. The current reality of cities accumulating skyscrapers is too simple, a monument without humanity in which we busy ourselves living without spirit or joy.’

images from architect

Beijing is a Shanshui City, it is the traditional Chinese feelings of landscape shown at the scale of a city. How can humans and nature exist within high urban density conditions of the modern cities? This does not only mean green or public spaces, but it is the articulation of feelings. Ma Yansong treats visitors of the showroom with a peek into the future Shanshui City.

Audi City Beijing images / information from Ma Yansong

MAD Architects

About MAD – MAD works in forward looking environments, developing futuristic architecture based on contemporary interpretation of the eastern spirit of nature. All of MAD’s projects – from residential complexes, the workplace to museums and cultural centers – desire to protect a sense of community and orientation toward nature, offering people the freedom to develop their own experience. Founded in 2004 by Ma Yansong, the office gained international attention in 2006 when it was commissioned to design two residential towers near Toronto, Canada, which will be completed by the end of 2012. Other ongoing residential projects by MAD are located in Sanya, Beihai and Harbin, China and Rome, Italy. Paris, France.

Loction: Oriental Plaza, Beijing, China