An abandoned market in Taiping Xu, in China’s Guangdong province, has been transformed into a colourful lighthouse. On show until summer 2024, the installation by MAD brings a renewed energy to a place — the largest disused building in the village — that once bustled with fishers, villagers and everyone in between. Dating back hundreds of years to the late Ming Dynasty, the market closed in the 1980s. It now stands as a relic of a time before massive urbanization drives shifted huge swathes of the rural population to often-nascent major cities.

The project turns the building into a beacon for the remaining community — concrete houses intersperse with old brick buildings on the deserted streets, and some elders have steadfastly held onto their homes — as well as what one assumes will be many tourists passing through just to see it. On its sides, the three-storey building is wrapped in bands of reflective film: “a new material that blurrily mirrors the surrounding old streets through the building’s façade and inner space, respectively,” MAD explains.

At the top of the building the firm has installed a towering multimedia light device “enveloped in colourfully delicate pieces of cloth, fluttering in the wind romantically.” The gauzy fabric cascades down the sides as well and gives the installation a Christo-like effect, re-casting the building as an objet d’art. Called Timeless Beacon, MAD’s brilliant artwork can be seen from various vantage points in the village.

That the lighthouse stands out so prominently — and with such a bold expression — puts it in a conversation with other MAD projects that give voice to remnants of traditional Chinese life struggling to survive the inexorable path towards the homogenization of villages and/or their negligence in favour of moving their inhabitants to big urban centres. Among these is the Hutong Bubble series, wherein the firm inserted massive steel orbs into the time-honoured rural homes. “I hope that these bubbles will serve as vital newborn cells,” MAD founder Ma Yansong once told Azure, “giving the traditional hutong new life, and revitalizing the community.”

What’s remarkable about these projects — apart from their display of respect for the past through a vivid reimagining of its place in the present and future — is that they are the work of a firm that is also shaping the future of China through its many bold master plans. Yansong’s work shows that it’s possible to protect heritage while also forging boldly ahead.