Ma Yansong Builds Museum in Gobi Desert (VIDEO)

Imagine wandering through the Gobi desert and coming upon a 130,000 square foot bubble, emerging out of infinite sand and clay terrain. This is not a mirage, but the new Ordos Art and City Museum in Inner Mongolia, designed by Ma Yonsung and recently completed. Part spaceship, part whale, this futuristic beast of a building pairs unusual aesthetics with its extremely unusual location.

Thanks to a recent boom in Ordos City's economy, the Mongolian government has made strides to start building a city in the once barren land and the museum will be right in the center. Its curved walls, smooth white interior and space-age flavor make the atmosphere a world away from the barren sandscape surrounding it. The beautiful contradiction of tradition and urban modernity is precisely what the art museum aims to capture inside its walls as well.

Check out the mesmerizing feat here:

new museum in Ordos - by Niu Han from MAD architects - beiijing on Vimeo.