What would the Chinese colonisation of a Martian planet look like? What point does survival stop and architecture begin, and, once survival is assured, what memory of earth or expression of love for their new home would these interplanetary colonisers recreate first?
MAD Martian is the result of world renowned designer Ma Yansong’s thinking on these questions.
Ma is famed for the design philosophy of ‘Shanshui City’, which integrates elements of traditional Chinese landscape design and painting into large scale urban architecture. The result are forms that, as with the natural environment, convey both elegant and gnarly lines.
In the context of Chinese colonisation of a Martian Planet the design focus was on how cultural habits, expressed through Shanshui City, are projected not in the present, but into an imagined future scenario. Starting with the moment of astronaut departure, from an Earth either destroyed by humans or overrun by aliens, Ma conceived of the collection as being Noah beyond The Ark. Timber saved the great patriarch from the deluge. In MAD Martian, Ma has reasoned that in the future highly-advanced materials will achieve this catapulting of humanity into safe extra-terrestrial environments.
The design language of science fiction was established during the mid 20th C. These candelabras take their cue in part from 1970s works, such as Alien and Blade Runner.
Climate change and other apocalyptic scenarios combined with the emergence of the robotic economy has given rise to a new generation of science fiction movies. The role of these movies is to test, and ultimately, provide an optimistic view (no matter how slender) of humanity’s capacity to survive its current trajectory.
The creative direction of the collection was undertaken by Broached’s Creative Director, Lou Weis.
