Chinese firm MAD has today unveiled plans for a village of towering apartment blocks beside the Huangshan Mountains in eastern China.
Inspired by the topographical layers of the landscape, the buildings will have organically shaped floor plates and will emerge from amongst the treetops on a site beside the Taiping Lake.
MAD hopes that the new community will give many Chinese residents access to the impressive landscape that has inspired painters for many years.
"We hope that residents will not just look at the scenery, but see themselves in relation to this environment," said MAD founder Ma Yansong. "In observing oneself, one perhaps begins to notice a different self than the one present in the city."
The architect also explained how the poetry of the place inspired the design. "The impression we have of Taiping Lake in Huangshan is vague. Each visit to this place yields different views, different impressions. A bit mysterious, like ancient landscape paintings, never based on realism but rather, the imagination. This vague feeling is always poetic; it is obscure and indistinct," he said.
Set to complete in 2014 , the community will accommodate 700 apartments, as well as a hotel and other community facilities.
