MAD Completes Gardenhouse

MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong, has completed Gardenhouse, its first project completed in the USA.

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Located at 8600 Wilshire Boulevard in California’s Beverly Hills, Gardenhouse is a mixed-use scheme consisting of 18 residential units above ground-floor commercial space. Evoking the lush landscape of Beverly Hills, the scheme becomes a hillside village with residential units growing from the building’s living green wall. Peaking above the landscaped envelope, a cluster of white facaded, irregular-shaped windows and gabled-roof structures create a dynamic neighbourhood, and a playful, witty, though simple homage to the iconic hillsides of Los Angeles.

Upon completion, the scheme will host one of the largest living green walls in the USA. This defining envelope is covered in lush plantings of native, drought-tolerant succulents and vines, whose familiarity to the local climate negates the need for extra irrigation and maintenance. The result is a unique texture forming an organic, natural, seasonal addition to the neighbourhood streetscape.

The 4460m2 (48,000ft2) hillside village offers a variety of different housing typologies: two studios, eight condominiums, three townhouses and five villas. This healthy mixture results in a high sense of community, and a feeling of individuality and exclusiveness even in this small-scale development. Unlike traditional apartment schemes, each unit has its own independent entry/exit circulation route, while almost every unit features a pitched-roof volume with dynamic interior expressions.

FACT FILE:

Typology:

Residential, commercial

Site area:

2400m2

Building area:

4460m2

Building height:

18m

Principal partners in charge:

Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano

Associate partners in charge:

Flora Lee, Dixon Lu

Design team:

Li Guangchong, Jon Kontuly, Joanna Tan, Chris Hung-Yu Chen, Wenshan Xie, Cesar D Pena Del Rey, Jeffrey Miner

Client:

Palisades Capital Partners LLC

Executive architect:

Gruen Associates

Structural engineer:

John Labib + Associates (JLA)

MEP engineer:

Breen Engineering Inc.

Landscape architect:

Gruen Associates

Interior design:

Rottet Studio

Civil engineering:

Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.

Green wall specialist:

Seasons Landscape

General constructor:

DHC Builders, Inc.

Enclosed by this cluster of white, pitched-roofed houses, the second-floor courtyard forms a central landscaped gathering space for the small community. With careful consideration given to the distance, orientation and arrangement of balconies overlooking the courtyard, the result is a private, tranquil, convenient interaction between residents and the secret garden which they share.

Residents of Gardenhouse are welcomed via a ground-floor entrance along Stanley Drive, off Wilshire Boulevard. The entrance adopts the atmosphere of a cave digging into the hillside; a dim, surreal environment where residents are led on a journey through a fairyland of light, shadow and the sound of water. Further ahead, the softness of the cave meets a bright conclusion, with natural light flooding through a connected water feature from the courtyard patio above. Standing beneath this threshold, visitors marvel at a framed view of sun, sky, landscape and water: a living painting removing people from the reality of the city.

Through Gardenhouse, MAD seeks to offer a rebuttal to the stereotypical cubic-box living environments of high-density cities across the world. An intrinsic connection with nature, with a tranquil, shared courtyard and private outdoor space for each unit, creates a calm oasis just meters away from the urban environment. The result is a physical manifestation of the idea that architecture can connect with both the built and natural environment, to offer a more full, harmonious living experience.

Ma Yansong said: “Los Angeles and Beverly Hills are highly modernised and developed. Their residences on the hills seemingly coexist with the urban environment. However, they also see enclosed movement at their core. The commune connection between the urban environment and nature is isolated. What new perspectives, and new value, can we bring to Los Angeles? Perhaps, we can create a hill in the urban context, so people can live on it and make it a village. This place will be half urban, half nature. This can offer an interesting response to Beverly Hills: a neighbourhood which is often carefully organised and maintained, now with a witty, playful new resident.”

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