Modern residential quarters of large metropolitan areas, with rare exceptions, are very similar to each other regardless of location: be it Harbin in distant China or Moscow. An additional resemblance to Moscow gives Harbin an abundance of snow in winter. Ma Yansong and Dan Qun deliberately introduced a completely alien object into the dull and faceless environment. Among typical residential high-rises, a 200-meter-long twisted "beam", completely covered with polished steel plates, suddenly appeared elongated horizontally.
Snow lies spectacularly and rolls down swirling planes, like on mountain slopes, the sun plays on the mirror surface of the plates - either a frozen block of ice, or an unknown space object, it is not clear how it ended up here. At the same time, the building feels quite confident and even dominates the landscape, completely changing the surrounding area.
But, as always at MAD, the project is well thought out from a functional point of view. The total construction area is just under 13,000 m2, the height is about 21 m. The imposing walls help to reduce heat loss, and the glazed "slots" are positioned to make the most of natural light, because the sun does not rise high here. Inside there are three halls, in which it is planned to exhibit wooden sculptures by local craftsmen, as well as paintings in which the theme of ice and snow prevails.
Prominent Beijing architects will continue to work in this area of Harbin: an opera house and a cultural center are also planned. Together with the museum, they will form a new cultural "cluster" in the city.
