Building foundations with imagination

A seabird poised to take flight toward the distant horizon has been placed at the center of the exhibition space. This installation piece called Freedom belongs to the first chapter of the exhibition, which is titled Dialogue. It features seven urban public projects, including Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, Harbin Opera House, the FENIX Museum of Migration in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Quzhou Sports Park, Yiwu Grand Theatre, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

Ma sees Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, which has a smooth, irregular and double-curved structure made of granite, as an example that shows the development of modern technology. The designs don't clearly distinguish between architecture and nature; the sea and the park can blend seamlessly together, he says.

"From the very beginning, when we started opposing Modernist architecture, we challenged all the fundamentals. Those large rectangular, boxlike buildings were technically simple and easy to replicate. The future should not be about what technology can create, and people have to live in those spaces; it should be about what spaces people want to live in, and technology should find ways to achieve that," says Ma.

"Why would anyone want to live in a square box. Isn't that strange? It's a product of the industrial mass production era, and there should be a change," he adds.

The second chapter, Process, showcases several projects MAD Architects is currently building or has completed, including the Hainan Science and Technology Museum, Jiaxing Train Station, and the Absolute Towers in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It aims to illustrate MAD's diverse practices, emphasizing that the future of the city arises from the imaginative engagement with the layers of urban reality.

The third chapter of the exhibition presents building models consisting entirely of art and design pieces, including chairs and fish tanks, suspended in floating bubbles.

Ma reveals that the special display was developed from an idea that emerged in the final two weeks leading up to the opening of the exhibition.