MAD’s first built European project completes in Paris

Beijing-headquartered MAD Architects has unveiled UNIC, an undulating residential tower that rises over 160 toes over the newly developed mixed-use “eco-district” of Clichy-Batignolles in Paris’s seventeenth arrondissement. Notably, UNIC is MAD’s first-ever realized undertaking in Europe; when MAD’s founder and principal Ma Yansong was tapped to design the ultra-efficient Parisian condo high-rise in 2012, he made historical past as the primary Chinese language architect to tackle a serious fee not solely in France however within the entirety of Europe. Exterior of China, MAD is greatest recognized for a slate of accomplished and in-progress tasks, every extra idiosyncratic than the final, in and round Los Angeles, the place the agency opened a Santa Monica studio in 2015.

A complete of 9 plots have been developed as a part of the large Clichy-Batignolles redevelopment undertaking, which first kicked off in 2001 on a swath of land previously populated by rail yards utilized by SNCF, France’s state-owned railway firm. The 130-acre ground-up neighborhood is anchored by Parc Clichy-Batignolles – Martin Luther King, which is now the biggest inexperienced area within the seventeenth arrondissement and among the many largest parks in Paris. Curvilinear and wrapped in terraces, UNIC sits alongside the sting of the almost 28-acre park with its wavy kind performing as a “foil” to the close by Haussmann-style condo blocks that dominate the residential structure of this significantly massive and dense arrondissement within the northwest of Paris.

The spacious, non-repeating terraces that outline the outside of the glass-skinned, 13-story constructing play a key position in its general design, offering residents with ample contemporary air, pure mild, and sweeping views of the neighboring park and metropolis past. A number of the terraces are dotted with potted timber to “body views of the town from throughout the dwelling areas” whereas others (particularly these on the southern facet of the constructing) get pleasure from glimpses of the Eiffel Tower, which is positioned just a little over 2 miles away. “Just like the swaying timber surrounding the positioning, the billowing terraces animate the neighborhood from each up shut and at a distance,” detailed the agency in a press launch.

Comprised of a mixture of luxurious items and inexpensive residences, the roughly 71,000-square-foot UNIC is described by the agency as a undertaking that “aroused MAD’s curiosity in social design.” Simply final month, the agency accomplished its first inexpensive housing undertaking in China, a sprawling, 12-building improvement on the fringes of Beijing’s central enterprise district often called Baiziwan.

Again in Paris, UNIC’s massive podium is fused with a neighboring inexpensive housing advanced and homes quite a few shared facilities together with retailers, eating places, and a kindergarten. The general public backyard–topped podium additionally options quick access to public transit by way of a (very hard-to-miss) Metro station entrance marked by a kaleidoscopic sculptural awning. “This distinctive mixture of services has the added characteristic of facilitating communication between the numerous lessons of occupants taking residence inside UNIC, whereas the ground above the kindergarten is essentially devoted to a serpentine inexperienced area that gives residents with an extra alternative to get in contact with nature amid their city environment,” elaborated MAD.

Very similar to the opposite buildings realized as a part of Clichy-Batignolles, which MAD described as “an expression of the town’s dedication to decreasing its carbon footprint whereas offering much-needed housing for roughly 7,500 residents,” UNIC possesses a minimal environmental footprint due to its Passivhaus-compliant design that required passive heating and cooling methods and high-performance window glazing together with a bunch of stringent environmental efficiency standards.

Becoming a member of MAD on its inaugural European undertaking was Parisian studio BIECHER Architectes within the position of workforce coordinator and government architect, inside designer Charles Zana, panorama architect PHYTOLAB, structural engineer BECIP, and others.