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Architect introduces unique ecocity projects
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WHO is he?
Neville Mars started his career working for OMA-Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam. In 2003 in Beijing he founded the Dynamic City Foundation (DCF), an interdisciplinary research platform investigating hyper-speed urbanization and sustainable growth in China. The winning architecture firm MARS Architects Shanghai has been used in various ecocity planning projects across China, including a comprehensive future vision for Caofeidian Ecocity, presented at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. Mars is the author of “Chinese Dream — A Society Under Construction,” published in 2008. He has presented his vision for a clean China in lectures around the world. His clients include BMW, the Guggenheim Museum and Royal Dutch Shell.
Tell us about some of your works, and name the one you are most proud of.
Looking back, I think we can be quite proud about having introduced a number of truly new systems, even in some cases, an entirely new way of collaborating. This was important, because we needed to find ways to design at the speed of China while creating many of the qualities we love from cities in Europe. Increasingly we started designing more buildings including some green towers and museums. Over the years MARS Architects have designed many different projects on different scales, so it is quite hard to compare.
Are you currently involved with any project?
Currently, we are entering the building phase of an open international competition we won in Sofia, Bulgaria. This will be a large headquarters combined with an indoor climbing complex. Spatially folding these two opposing functions together has created a unique and dramatic experience for both climbers and offices. In addition, we are working on a number of urban projects, including a master plan for the 798 art district in Beijing. Instead of simply adding more buildings and solving the infrastructure, which is quite straightforward, we wanted to address how the core qualities of the area — the art, design and creativity — that has emerged in a truly unique historic public space, can be safeguarded.
Describe your design style.
I guess my design style is Dutch and has its foundation in the OMA tradition. That means I like to make architecture that solves problems. If it’s about creating flexible space or efficient systems or very intuitive experience for the user, we have a clear objective in mind how the building should work. This introduces an interesting contradiction; designing through a rationally driven process actually generates very surprising spaces and buildings. The project generates its natural expression and appearance that is often much more expressive than something we could have thought of beforehand.
What will be the next big design trend?
The hipsters of New York and London have introduced a global trend that tries to break away from big brands, bling and blunt commercialization. They prefer to wear vintage clothing, ride cool bikes, eat (and sell) home-made food and handmade, sustainable and unique one-off products. I think this trend, as a somewhat overhyped sub-culture has peaked now. It has become part of a lasting trend defined by concepts such as the personalized, the local, the unique, the sustainable, the smart, the experiential.
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