Pop Music Centre, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
The former industrial port turned into the great stage for music
How do you turn a competition idea into a buildable 11-hectare complex beside the port?
EDDEA revised the winning proposal, developed jointly with Made In, on the basis of people flows and the facilities programme. The complex is organised into three areas adapted to the harbour basin, and the two auditorium buildings merge into a single construction, joined back to back and resolved in section, for auditoriums of 5,000 and 12,000 people.
In the heart of Kaohsiung harbour, at the mouth of the Love River, stands Taiwan's Maritime Cultural and Pop Music Centre. Divided into three areas and several open-air leisure zones, the project was conceived to become a leading local hub for creativity and leisure.
One of the greatest challenges our practice has taken on, it covers 11 hectares designed for the everyday enjoyment of the city's residents: for daily walks and for spending time together. In short, designed to be woven into the heart of the city.
Its symbolic character comes from the way the towers can read as waves and the whole intervention as a seascape.
Among other specialist publications, Portusonline magazine has featured the project.
Three zones connected to one another and to their surroundings
The scheme stems from the First Prize awarded to the Spanish team Made In in an international competition in 2011, for a piece of urban fabric that would become part of city life and offer the people of Taiwan spaces for activity.
EDDEA revisited the concept and the idea as first outlined, working from diagrams of people flows and facilities. It was then decided to develop a harbour basin with new uses, and three areas were devised, each adapted to the different conditions along its edges.
Our first contribution was to revise the entire concept to ensure the technical and constructional feasibility of the whole complex. The most visible outcome of EDDEA's work is the ensemble of high-rise buildings.
The initial schemes showed two separate buildings, each with an auditorium attached. Our proposal tackled the programme by combining the two constructions into one, embracing them back to back and working the section in detail.
Architecture for a complete experience
Inspired by ocean waves and strategically located, the centre and its auditoriums – one indoor, seating 5,000, and one outdoor, for up to 12,000 – form one of the most striking parts of the site. This area is crowned by two towers, one 113 metres and the other 83 metres high.
The project also caters for the Taiwanese love of food trails, with a night market that never lacks visitors around the clock, and for its setting, linked to the design of the Maritime Museum beside the bay.
The third and final area links the main access and exit routes in the area, from the ferry terminal to the seafront promenade, as well as other points of arrival. An interior connection more than 25 metres high, in the form of ramps and escalators, ties all the areas together.
