Taichung: The Latest Architecture and News

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Elizabeth de Portzamparc has been selected as the winner of an international competition for the design of the new Taichung Intelligence Operation Center in Taichung, Taiwan. Conceived as a ‘vertical interconnected neighborhood,’ the tower grows from a series of terraces at its base that turn to become the facade.

Viewed as an extension of the city, the five levels of the podium will be accessible to the public, offering a variety of retail and restaurant options as well as access to the 24,000-square-meter Digital Cultural Center. These spaces will be connected by a series of ribbon-like ‘vertical streets,’ passing through spacious, light-filled atriums and connecting to rooftop green spaces.

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Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung has temporarily “pulled the plug” on Sou Fujimoto’s ambitious Taiwan Tower, saying he would rather pay a penalty for breaking the contract than spend an estimated NT$15 billion to realize the “problematic” project.

The Banyan tree-inspired tower was hoped to become the “Taiwanese version of the Eiffel Tower,” as well as a model for sustainable architecture by achieving LEED Gold with its energy producing features. Its steel superstructure, which proposed to hoist a triangular section of the Taichung Gateway Park’s greenbelt 300-meters into the air, intentionally had “no obvious form” and was to be perceived as a natural phenomenon.

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• Architects

  Meier Partners

• Location

  Wenxin 1st Road, Taichung City, Taiwan (ROC)

• Project Year

  2018

• Photographs

  Courtesy of Meier Partners

• Area

  94052.0 m2

Today, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza and architect Carlos Castanheira will inaugurate the Taifong Golf Club, in Changhua, Taiwan.

The two Portuguese architects began the recently-completed project in 2009. The clubhouse includes spaces for recreational and cultural events and activities. The building demonstrates a rich relationship between the landscape and local culture.

Architects: Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira
Local Partner | Project Management and Construction Supervision: Ho+Hou Studio Architects and Studio Base Architects
Images of the project—kindly shared with us by architecture photographer Fernando Guerra | FG+SG—can be seen after the break.

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SANAA, it is. In attempts to separate itself from its sister cities, Taichung City has named SANAA, led by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, winners of an international competition that intends to unite a newly formed city. As of December 2010, Taichung city executed a mega-merger that increased its population from 1 million inhabitants to 2.5 million, encompassing the skyscraping towers of downtown Taichung to the agricultural mountainside villages of Taichung County. As a result, the local government envisioned a new urban space that would place art at its core, celebrating the regions' disparate cultures.

With arts and culture at the core of Taichung’s urban identity, and the vision to lead in innovation and technology, this design proposal by RMJM seeks to bring together these significant attributes in a building emblematic of Taichung’s achievements and vision. Located at the corner of Taichung Gateway Park, the project becomes an urban oasis and a vital link between existing communities and future urban development, providing a social and cultural focus and an arrival gateway to the park. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by SZA (Studio za arhitekturu), their Taichung City Cultural Center proposal is a complex space structure. With its ground plan being 50 x 50 m, their concept creates an energetic, self-sufficiency throughout the project through a system of a vertical accordion and through an exchange of functional storeys and sustainable construction storeys. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by BAT, their proposal for the new City Cultural Center grows from the earth, with the strength of the sea and mountains, to show to the world how Taiwan is; how Taichung is. The design uses this strength to configure an astonishing landscape architecture able to project the cultural center internationally. More images and architects' description after the break.

The condition for this proposal by Hyunjoon Yoo Architects for the Taichung City Cultural Center competition is very unique and original since two distinct buildings, library and fine arts museum, should coexist in one site. For the architectural design that fulfills this exclusive condition, the architects applied the notion of "Taiji", the verity of yin and yang that has existed since the ancient era of Chinese history. In this new design, the spatial arrangement of library and art museum are planned to confront and interact at the same time, giving the positive effect to each other. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The proposal for the Taichung Cultural City Center by de Architekten Cie. is composed of a well-defined system of voids as the museum and the library are designed as a flexible structure to be able to follow frequent changes in museum and library philosophy. Lifts and escalators are built into both buildings to provide an indubitable vertical communication and an evident orientation for future visitors. More images and architects' description after the break.