Multi-storey apartment buildings are usually not what comes to mind when one thinks of serene retreats in scenic environments and yet Chinese practice MAD Architects has created just that in the sloping, verdant shores of Taiping Lake in Huangshan District in eastern China’s Anhui province. Crowning the mountainous landscape almost like natural formations that have been sculpted by wind and water, the interlinked glass and concrete buildings of Huangshan Mountain Village look both contemporary and timeless, masterfully combining modern vertical living with expansive horizons of natural beauty. 

Located near the ancient villages of Xidi and Hongcun, a UNESCO Heritage Site, in the midst of some of the most beautiful mountains in the country, and part of a larger tourism master plan for Huangshan Taiping Lake, a popular tourist destination, the complex has been designed in deference to local topography through varying both the height of each of the ten buildings and the outline of every floor plate whose organic shapes allude to the neighbouring tea fields. The result is a cluster of tapered, striated volumes that seem to coalesce into a sculptural manifestation of the local topographic contours. Architecture has been transformed into nature.