2011 – The InstrumenTower _ Taichung Taiwan

 

 

 
Program Landmark tower and city development museum
Floor area 6 500 m²
Place Taichung – Taiwan
Team Eric Cassar, Laura Corcos, Juvenal Rubinos, Lucie Rieutord, Mathilde Wilhem, Yang Wu
Engineering Consultant ARUP

General Principles The Taiwan Reeds (instrumentower) are not a tower they are a sum of unpolished or polished metal columns reaching the sky, an InstrumenTower in the city. In the distance, the limit between tower and sky is erased. /The Reeds (tower) = the vertical = the lines / The bottom museum = the oblique ground = the curved surfaces / An interactive instrument in the city / The city museum as a porous space / The two infinites experience / Light relief – visual InstrumenTower / A balloon as a moving observatory – art mobile InstrumenTower / Three oblique squares to sit down in front of the InstrumenTower

The Taiwan Reeds are made of very different outside spaces: the «Ampitheatre Square», the «Emotional Square», the «Museum Piazza» and the «Central Entrance». Most of them are oblique squares in order to offer everyone a singular view of the tower. Each square has its own identity and offers a singular experience, a feeling. The buildings roofs and parkings are a ground extent. They give birth to 2 obliques squares with different atmospheres. They invite the visitor to sit or lay down in front of the project. A central place gives access to the elevators in order to reach the different floors of the tower.

The tower has 3 floors with a balloon (observatory) that starts at the second floor, a garden on the first level and a museum.

An organ in the city
The tower is not only a building or a visual design, it is really an instrument, that means a tool to explore, a tool that artists can appropriate and domesticate in order to create music, visual and/or interactive effects. The instrument works with the environment but also with any input (such as various artist creativity).

Columns are made of steel tubes, some of them are filled up with concrete at several heights for them to produce different sounds. Some are pierced to create sounds thanks to the wind. So at any time, the Taiwan Reeds could become an organ singing through the city. It musically colors the town. The organ could be used for special music or concert, controlled by a musician or by a computer dealing with interactivity. The Taiwan Reeds become the biggest wind organ in the world.

A visual instrument
The stainless steel columns have various functions, some help for structure, others are for the organ, others are used both for the structure and the wind organ. Depending on their nature, they slightly move in the wind, and shine differently depending on the sun. They create unique light reflections. The observer do not discern where the building starts and where it ends. The Taiwan Reeds are melt into the air. The limit of the tower matter is blurred. Many forms can appear depending on the light and weather. The Taiwan Reeds do not have one image but many images. It seems they appear or vanish into the landscape (presence, absence).