梦露大厦，中国MAD建筑事务所第一个国际项目，日前首批居民已入住。

这对线条简练的性感大厦具有极高的识别度。梦露大厦从竞赛中脱颖而出，超越人们的想象，以极其自然的状态挑战着当代城市无聊的同质性，为城市及生活注入活力和凝聚力，并猛烈的撞击仅以效率为中心的现状开发现状，引发出对未来极负使命感的反思和探索：我们城市的未来应该是怎样的？高密度的城市概念应如何把握？城市居民的丰富生活如何在开发浪潮中鲜活的存在。未来的高层建筑应具有更高层次的复杂性，它们担负着创造和谐文明城市的使命。

性感的Absolute塔被当地人们亲切的称为梦露大厦。最开始甲方只打算修一栋，但是塔楼亮相后很快被预售一光，因此MAD事务所接受委托在最初的那栋旁边再设计了一栋。这一栋同样性感简练，但却有着自己的旋转幅度和独一无二的魅力体形。双塔分别高179.5米和161米，分别是56层和50层，它们自然婀娜多姿的身段点燃了城市的激情，并成为城市中不可替代的重要标志。其层层叠叠旋转巧妙错开的曼妙姿态在任何角度都是不同的，变化的，迷人的。每层都有连续的阳台让用户享受宽广的城市视角。

这座建筑唤醒了大城市中人们对自然的渴望，感受阳光，清风以及我们自身的存在。

现代主义有一句有名的宣言：建筑是居住的机器。但是我们必须发问，在机器及其所代表的社会基础发生了如此剧变的今天，我们应该怎样理解建筑？如果建筑正在远离工业，那么她更应该表达什么内容？

与北美其它迅速发展的近郊城市一样，加拿大多伦多地区的密西沙加市也一直在努力寻找着自己的性格和定位。我们认为这是一个机会，她没有必要再像那些典型的城郊一样，一心梦想着变成大都市，而有可能反思自己地域的独特性，考虑用一种特殊的方式来回应日益膨胀的城市需求。

我们的设计不再屈服于现代主义的简化原则，而是表达出一种更高层次的复杂性，来更多元地接近当代社会和生活的多样化、多层模糊的需求。 我们认为建筑本身是对自然和环境的反应和强调，高塔的设计一直是对地理和社会环境的一种有力的陈述。

<梦露大厦>于密西沙加市最重要街道交汇处,她的重要性和标志性将使这片区域成为这个低密度近郊城市的中心。在我们的设计中,连续的水平阳台环绕整栋建筑，传统高层建筑中用来强调高度的垂直线条被取消了，整个建筑在不同高度进行着不同角度的旋转，来对应不同高度的景观感受。

我们希望<梦露大厦>可以唤醒大城市里的人对自然的憧憬，感受到阳光和风对人们生活的影响。

地点: 加拿大, 密西沙加市（此中文文本同MAD官网）

30 March 2006: The day after MAD was introduced as a finalist in the international design competition, the Toronto Star ran a cartoon beside a large editorial about the competition. While the cartoonist mocked the ambition of Mississauga’s Mayor, he perfectly portrays the quality of our design: a recognisable building that captures  people’s imagination in an environment of generic boxes.

We call our cities steel concrete forests.

Throughout the process of urbanization, skyscrapers have been symbols of technological bravado, prime capitals and the societal projections of wealth and prosperity. This limited framework for skyscrapers often results in solutions limited by homogenous, linear structures and degenerative duplication in business districts across the globe. Forced into an unnatural state of conformity, metropolitan life is negatively affected by these unchecked, efficiency-centric development practices.

Without a challenge to the status quo, our cities will continue to lack the cohesion of life as implied by the term: forest. A forest is a thriving ecosystem wherein every organism survives only in a state of symbiosis. New ambitions nurtured in a changing global consciousness challenge the aging pattern of last century’s development and favor fresh thoughtful, inspiring and eloquent solutions for tomorrow’s high-rises.

What lies in the future of our cities? How should one grasp the concept of emerging high-density cities? How can city dwellers be immersed with an enriching experience of nature when its presence steadily diminishes in the face of the ever intensifying concrete inundation? Faced with these challenges, future high-rise buildings need to  catalyze a higher level of complexity in our cities for the sake of harmonious civilization.

Fondly dubbed the Marylyn Monroe towers by local residents, the Absolute Towers parallel the twisting fluidity or natural lines found in life. This activation of flow forms an organic punctuation in the landscape and a desire for an urban acknowledgement of enthusiasm. Here, we thrive to challenge the sustenance of commonplace boxy skyscrapers. Our ambition was to provide each resident a unique experience of the city, a heterarchitical distribution. Continuous balconies widen individual viewing angles and promote community at the micro scale of a single floor. At the macro, the cadence of the floors rising into the sky echo the modular rhythms of the human experience, yet emphasizes the movement of an adoring figure. We hope this building can wake up metropolitans’ desires towards nature, such as sun and wind, and certainly, human bodies.

A Crisis of Identity

Like other suburbs in North America, Mississauga, near Toronto, has been quickly developing into an independent, urbanized area. Yet, the cityscape lacked a unique character. In response, we wanted to add something naturalistic, delicate and human in contrast to the backdrop of listless, boxy buildings. Sited at the junction of two main streets (Hurantario and Burnhamthorpe), the Absolute Towers gracefully bear their landmark status and act as a gateway to the city beyond. As a residential landmark that strives for more than simple efficiency, the buildings provide residents an emotional connection to their hometown and neighbors.

Eschewing the tradition of accentuated verticality in high-rises, the Absolute Towers choose not to emphasize vertical lines. Instead, the design features a smooth,  unbroken balcony that wraps each floor of the building. In addition, at each successive level, the floor plate rotates in a range of one to eight degrees affording breathtaking panoramas of the Mississauga skyline concluding in reverence to the principle street intersection at its peak. By maximizing the viewing potentials inside and out, creating a wonderful medium for social interaction throughout the balconies, and connecting the city dwellers with naturalistic design principles, Mississauga is infused with a new character.

 
A New Sustainability

In place of the basic, functional logic of an aging modernism, the current trend of sustainable design is reminiscent of the sudden rise in the glass-faced boxy buildings of last century. Sustainability, in concept, is often unfortunately simplified to the lowest common denominator. If we limit the scope of sustainable ecology to energy savings, it will become merely a demand for comfort while the yearning of a return to nature is ignored. This design practice remains the axiom of the industrial revolution, man  controls nature. We feel sustainability is a much greater concept which can guide a new culture of design resulting in real change. For instance, in traditional Chinese gardens, building and nature elements are integrated to create a spiritual and poetic environment fostering great literature, poem and music, or simply life and philosophy. Our approach, ergo, is to create a balanced environment that evokes the feeling of exploring nature while simultaneously a responsive model for the development of urban space in harmony with nature. A sustainable architecture in modern concept. Real sustainability results in a harmonious civilization.This is the biggest challenge of our time. How do we rebuild urban environments with life and emotion where people are connected and respected?