Philosophy of the Cloud
In the framework of exhibition “Shelter: Rethinking How We Live in Los Angeles,” held last autumn at the A+D Museum, MAD proposed the Cloud Corridor project as a future concept for residential design in Los Angeles. Cloud Corridor embodies Ma Yansong’s “Shanshui City” philosophy for architecture, referring in the urban architecture the principles of traditional Chinese landscape painting style, which involves scenery or natural landscapes, representing a combination of mountains and bodies of water - the sacred elements, symbolizing the synergy of contrary masculine and feminine forces of Yin-Yang to manifest the spiritual essence between people and nature.
Cloud Corridor addresses the concern of sprawl in cities and presents a typological alternative: the highdensity vertical village. By reorienting the streets vertically, nine interconnected residential towers redistribute the urban fabric to cohere disparate neighborhoods into a vertical village with public spaces and gardens in the sky.
Connective corridors weave circulation between towers to foster a sense of community among residents and activate the towers as a bustling village within the city. Formally, the highrise tower is a statement of power and social context. Cloud Corridor reconsiders modernism’s residential tower typology and folds in the design philosophy that residential building should respond to nature and emphasize the environment.
Vertical Gardens
Proposed as an urban landmark, Cloud Corridor expresses a devotion to nature. Each floorplate boasts gardens to accompany residential units. The garden patios and courtyards provide a lush environment amid the surrounding urban density, and provide a retreat from the everyday among nature. Elevated corridors and multi-level garden patios shape the city skyline and provide viewing platforms for residents to overlook the bustling activity below and the natural landscape beyond.
Full content of this issue you can read here
The full version of the article can be read in our printed issue, also you can subscribe to the web-version of the magazine
Materials provided by MAD Architects