Xinhee Design Center by MAD Architects. Image courtesy of MAD

The MAD building for the future of Chinese fashion

China's leading high-end womenswear producer hopes this Ma Yansong building with give it a design edge

Few of us in the West have heard of Xinhee, yet in China the firm holds a dominant position at the upper end of the women’s clothing market, offering premium fashion via its brands Jorya, Anmani, Givh Shyh, Caroline, Aivei and QDA.

 

Xinhee Design Center by MAD Architects. Image courtesy of MAD
Xinhee Design Center by MAD Architects. Image courtesy of MAD

In order to maintain this market share, and perhaps win over shoppers in Europe and America, Xinhee is investing in innovation. A few days ago MAD Architects, China’s most important contemporary architectural practice, released images of Xinhee’s Design Center, which the firm is currently building in the coastal city Xiamen, just across the straits from Taiwan.

 

Xinhee Design Center by MAD Architects. Image courtesy of MAD
Xinhee Design Center by MAD Architects. Image courtesy of MAD

MAD’s founder Ma Yansong says the Xinhee Design Center is organised around its six brands, with a six wings or "petal"s spaced around a central atrium. Over this solid, white bone-like structure, MAD plan to stretch a translucent polytetrafluoroethylene skin, creating a light open office, as well as a fertile environment for the building’s vertical garden. The Design Center’s atrium, meanwhile, will serve as a public space for staff and visitors, while its central walkway could even host runway shows.

 

Xinhee Design Center by MAD Architects. Image courtesy of MAD
Xinhee Design Center by MAD Architects. Image courtesy of MAD

MAD says the center consciously mirrors the kind goods that will be created within these see-through walls. “Both clothing and architecture explore the relationship between the interior and exterior,” says Yansong.

Yet we’ll have to wait until its completion 2017, to see whether this highly innovative work of architecture will induce a similar level of creativity among Xinhee’s designers. For more from MAD order a copy of MAD Works, the first authoritative book on this important firm.