The structure, located in a desert city in the northern Chinese autonomous region, is surrounded by a softly moulded shell of aluminium panels. How public awareness of mental health issues is changing where we work How public awareness of mental health issues is changing where we work Comment. MAD's response to this predicament was to take the main building and house it in two regularly shaped blocks, separated by a "canyon" of public circulation, which is articulated by a shapely internal skin that folds around the walkways and staircases. Shaped like a large undulating blob, the Ordos Museum is clad in polished metal tiles that are resistant to frequently occurring sandstorms. News Today, it is a urban centre mired in a common controversy in modern Chinese civilization: the conflict between the people's long standing traditions and their dreams of the future. Stanley Kubrick: An Exhibition shows he was as much designer as director Stanley Kubrick: An Exhibition shows he was as much designer as director Review.
Completed in in Mongolia. Images by SHU He.

Conceived as a reaction to the strict geometry of the master plan, the Art & City museum. The Ordos Museum in Inner Mongolia designed by MAD Architects.
Erdos Museum, Mongolia MAD Architects earchitect
The futuristic blob anchors the newly constructed desert city. It is covered in polished metal. 42 thousand square meters of museum space in new center of Ordos, inner Mongolia, is designed by MAD Architects. Driven by booming.
Three ways to tackle climate change by taking back spaces from the car Three ways to tackle climate change by taking back spaces from the car Comment.
New Ordos Museum by MAD Architects eVolo Architecture Magazine
The town is famous for being one of the most spectacular of the many new towns in China — it burst out of the steppe in little more than five years. The only chair design that changed the world The only chair design that changed the world Icon of the Month.
Stanley Kubrick: An Exhibition shows he was as much designer as director Stanley Kubrick: An Exhibition shows he was as much designer as director Review. Today, it is a urban centre mired in a common controversy in modern Chinese civilization: the conflict between the people's long standing traditions and their dreams of the future.
Entering the museum presents visitors with a strong contrast to the exterior: an airy monumental cave flushed with natural light through skylights.
MAD architects ordos museum completed
Located in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, the Ordos Museum is a crossroads for a community working to interpret its local traditions in a new urban context.
Editor's choice. The local community, as well, is encouraged to pass through the base of the central canyon which connects the two public entries at opposite ends without entering the exhibition hall or galleries.
Stanley Kubrick: An Exhibition shows he was as much designer as director Stanley Kubrick: An Exhibition shows he was as much designer as director Review. News You could read it as a rather full expression of the "blob" culture that took hold in architecture about a decade ago.
Ordos Museum by MAD Dezeen
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Familiar yet distinct, the museum appears to have either landed in the desert from another world or to always have existed.
Three ways to tackle climate change by taking back spaces from the car Three ways to tackle climate change by taking back spaces from the car Comment. Six years ago, the Inner Mongolia Ordos was an extended landscape of the majestic Gobi desert. The result is a timeless architecture in a modern city of ruins. How public awareness of mental health issues is changing where we work How public awareness of mental health issues is changing where we work Comment. ![]() The varying internalized flows of circulation are guided by a succession of light and shadow, at times mysteriously shaded and occasionally brilliantly bright yet consistently engaging. Whilst the surface of this shape functions as a metal container critical to protect the interior from the harsh winters and frequent sand storms of the region, metaphorically this external layer operates as a shield protecting the precious culture and history of the city from the unknown growth of the city. |
How public awareness of mental health issues is changing where we work How public awareness of mental health issues is changing where we work Comment. Whilst the surface of this shape functions as a metal container critical to protect the interior from the harsh winters and frequent sand storms of the region, metaphorically this external layer operates as a shield protecting the precious culture and history of the city from the unknown growth of the city.
This ensemble was then wrapped in a lightweight Buckminster Fuller-esque space-frame — albeit an irregularly shaped one with an opaque skin. It was surprising because I was thinking about the desert, but in the end it will become a very successful public space.
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People meet organically in the naturalistic landscapes of the museum, an intersection of natural and human development.
Patrons maneuver along the base of these primitive surroundings and through the light across mid-air tectonic bridges, reminiscent of the intersection of the past and the future of the Gobi landscape.