‘the street’ by mass studies image © designboom

beijing-based firm MAD architects and korean practice mass studies participated in ‘the street’, an exhibition of experiential installations at this year’s shenzhen & hong kong bi-city biennale in shenzhen, china. curated by terence riley, a series of displays are contained within cubicles evoking a road lined with facades. riley referred this exhibition concept to paolo portoghesi’s ‘strada novissima’ for the first venice architecture biennale in 1980, titled ‘presence of the past’.

mass studies featured a series of stepped platforms surfaced with LED screens which projected drawings, photographs and details of their buildings along with models within the cubic arrangement. MAD architects created a cubicle with a curved and mirrored partition and placed a black sphere inside. the skin of the ball has been penetrated with peepholes through which visitors may view the glowing contents stored inside.

MAD architects + mass studies: the street cubic installation by mass studies image © designboom

MAD architects + mass studies: the street cubes are surfaced with LED screens to project images of drawings and photographs image © designboom

MAD architects + mass studies: the street cubes are surfaced with LED screens show their work image © designboom

MAD architects + mass studies: the street LED screens project images of work image © designboom

MAD architects + mass studies: the street korean pavilion at the shanghai world expo 2010 image © designboom see designboom’s coverage of this project here.

MAD architects + mass studies: the street facade detail of the korean pavilion at the shanghai world expo 2010 image © designboom see designboom’s coverage of this project here.

MAD architects + mass studies: the street model image © designboom

MAD architects + mass studies: the street ‘xi gallery’ located in pusan, korea image © designboom

MAD architects + mass studies: the street minsuk cho, founder of mass studies portrait © designboom

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MAD architects + mass studies: the street street installation by MAD architects image © designboom

MAD architects + mass studies: the street sphere is bordered with a curved and mirrored wall image © designboom

MAD architects + mass studies: the street surface of the sphere is covered with peepholes image © designboom

MAD architects + mass studies: the street (left) peephole (right) view to the core of the sphere images © designboom

MAD architects + mass studies: the street ma yansong, founder of MAD architects portrait © designboom

— the 2011 SZHK biennale in shenzhen, china ran from december 8th through december 11th 2011. the scale of certain projects is such that the architect becomes not only a designer of buildings but also city planner and landscape architect and the shenzhen & hong kong bi-city biennale of urbanism \ architecture reflects this in its theme: architecture creates cities – cities create architecture. the SZHK biennale is the first to focus on urbanism as an ongoing theme to explore issues of the city as an active agent in contemporary culture. the program included more than 30 exhibitions, symposiums, panel discussions and performances. terence riley has been appointed chief curator (he is the first international curator for the event). the hong kong edition will work to complement the shenzhen biennale in an integrative way and is curated by gene king and anderson lee currently under preparation and due to open in february 2012. designboom is the principal international media partner of the SZHK biennale.