The multi-use facility houses both terminal and public facilities such as exhibition and event spaces and transforms the previously industrial site into an ‘urban hub and global gateway’. The design features two towers with a terminal hall suspended between them and extends beyond the site and into the city’s centre.
An open air plaza provides circulation around the base, balancing intersections of public and private, indoor and outdoor spaces. The fluctuating volume unites the centre of the city to the waterfront, where other public spaces are planned to be designed. The form, together with the lighting, aims to provide a dramatic entry experience, from both the water’s edge and the city.
The interwoven structure of the curved roof provides shelter to the space from sun and rain and dramatic illumination in the evenings when various activities are taking place. The design is a geometric, scale-like pattern offering a continually transforming environment, affected by light, shadow and time of the day.
Lightweight sculptural panels are suspended below to define the terminal hall, an open space dedicated to temporary events. It has been naturally illuminated from the penetrations in the ceiling above. The exposed structure is scattered throughout the space and allows for a subtraction of walls around the outer edge. The interior of the terminal building provides a spectacular culmination with a soaring vertical space naturally illuminated from above leading up to the large clear span of the terminal hall with sweeping panoramas of the City and the Kaohsiung skyline on one side and of the sea, the sky and the horizon on the other.
The Kaohsiung Port Terminal competition took place from September to November 2010, with stage two winners announced on 10 December 2010. US-based Fei & Cheng Associates (R.O.C.) from Reiser+Umemoto RUR Architecture PC won the competition.
The construction budget for the project is approximately $80,000,000. Project is scheduled for construction in 2012 and is expected to be in operation by 2014. The competition is sponsored by the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Taiwan, ROC.
