Kaohsiung: The Latest Architecture and News

Architects: Kris Yao | Artech Architects Location: Kaohsiung, Taiwan Clients: China Steel Corporation (CSC) Design Team: Willy Yu, Hua-Yi Chang, Nai-Wen Cheng, Jun-Ren Chou, Yen-Hsun Li Site Area: 11,037 sqm Lot Coverage Area: 2,590 sqm Total Floor Area: 81,054 Completion: Expected 2012 Photographs: Jeffrey Cheng

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AGER Group’s Boston Studio won an Excellence Award winning first prize for the Kaohsiung Port Station Urban Design competition initiated by the Urban Development Bureau of the Kaohsiung City Government in Taiwan. The 15.42 hectare site is located between the Hamasen and Yenchen historic commercial centers of the 1920’s and 40’s and at the intersection of three of Kaohsiung’s thriving neighborhoods home of the recent Maritime Music Center and Port Terminal competitions. The competition aimed at transforming the historic rail yard and port station into a new city destination, creating a progressive model for local urban renewal. More images and architects’ description after the break.

De Architekten Cie., Jason Lee and Patrick Koschuch, has won the open international Kaohsiung Port Station Urban Design competition in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The competition was initiated by the city government of Kaohsiung to transform the derelict site of the old railyards and port station from a barrier between two important areas of the city (the Hamasen and Yancheng districts), into a connective piece of the urban fabric. The stated ambitions by the client for the 15.42 hectare site are to highlight the cultural heritage of the site’s former function while introducing new programmes and building volume to accommodate city expansion. These twin objectives are to be achieved in a phaseable and highly sustainable manner. Since a large portion of the site and existing railway buildings are designated as historical monuments, the central challenge of the brief was to strike a balance between the desire for cultural preservation/revitalization, introducing new development onto the site, and establishing enough connections across site to transform the area from an urban barrier into an urban connector.