2010 – Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center _ Kaohsiung Taiwan

 

 
Program Performance halls, Pop music museum and marine culture museum
Area 71 000 m²
Place Kaohsiung – Taiwan
Team Eric Cassar, Juvenal Rubinos, Constance Bartin, Nourredine Sehil, Haï Le

General Principles The whole is greater than the sum of each part. kaohsiung maritime Cultural and Popular Music center expresses both unity and diversity, it becomes the Kaohsiung gateway.

 

Global project is a huge amphitheatre open to the sea. It is a gathering place. It follows the morphology of the site and transforms the entire water surface of the bay in one of the largest spectacle area in Asia. This huge amphitheatre is made of 3 different « stand-buildings »: the ship, the theatre and the sails which are connected together by a green promenade. Each building has its own identity its own architectural style. Then, each façade of each building reinvents itself continuously…

THE SHIP: concert halls and pop music museum

It is the higher building of the complex. It comes from the sea and thrusts upwards into the sky. Connected to the existing sightseeing terrace it is a doubled envelop building made of wood and metal. The second envelop is useful for natural ventilation and for stand to witness the show. This building holds the two performance halls, the pop music museum and a panoramic restaurant. Seen in the distance from the sea or the land, it announces the gateway of the port of Kaohsiung city.

THE THEATRE : Commercial Area / Administration Building / Outdoor Performance Area

It is the central building. It is made of a huge theatre with the main stand of the outdoor performance area. It is built against a curved screen building which acts as a sound barrier for the area on the other side. It holds the parking and administration activities. This building acts both as a connecting building (it connects music activities with the marine museum) and as a centre (support of the spectacle main stand). Seen from behind, the curved oblique facade is a huge curved mirror which reflects the sky while protecting the inhabitants from the sound during outside concerts.

THE SAILS : Marine Culture Area

It is a low height fragmented complex of buildings.
It is composed with several buildings made of various curved surfaces (or ‘sails’) which reinterprets traditional Asian roofs. Most of the building roofs are accessible creating more stands for the outdoor spectacle. Implantation of buildings adapts itself to the town morphology and generates public places which are linked by the green promenade at several heights. Small buildings next to the maritime museum hold commercial activities and cafés which animate public space.