Site
Location: Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Building
Use:Maritime Cultural and Music Center
Floor Area: 56,308m2

The competition site is located next to the waterfront on the South-western corner of Kaohsiung City. The 
competition site is now under development to give a better chance to the citizens and visitors to enjoy better 
this waterfront area. In the proposal the new building should give an impression of unifying the scenery of city 
and the sea. The linear building along the waterfront is set up. To demonstrate the presence of the sea as well 
as trying to cut out a picture of the sea the whole volume is lifted up 3.6 meters from the ground level. By lifting 
up the volume from ground level people are supposed to see the sea. The new building is considered to be a
multi-functional centre for citizens and visitors, offering different kinds of activities. The city has been developing
rabidly during the last years. The economical development of the city is also easy to recognise from the city
structure. The competition site is surrounded by these developing districts, and that´s why the scale around the 
area is changing a lot. Due to the rapid development, the city structure lacks of clear orders. As a result the
environment is quite complicated. To create comfortable city for daily life, a certain order is needed. Some sort 
of system should be created in order to achieve this target, but still the system should enable different variations.
In this proposal a simple big volume is set up, on the site of 11.89 ha, with 60% floor area ratio. Interior space is
divided to keep the scale of conventional city. The new institution is like a big gate, which connects an image 
from the city to the sea. By gathering different kinds of music and maritime cultural activities, it creates an
attraction spot next to waterfront, activating this area. 

The Master plan
The waterfront is surrounded by a linear building volume, which supposed to create an illusion of endlessly 
continuing sea. Big volumes such as the large performance hall and the outdoor performance hall are located 
apart from this linear volume. The stage of the outdoor performance hall cuts a hole in the main volume. This 
hole is a representing landmark of continuity between the city and the sea. The surrounding areas are planned 
to provide a varying landscape with accessible pedestrian streets. In additional, A new tram line is suggested to 
be build on the outskirts of the area to cover the whole site with comfortable transportation system. Later this 
system could be connected to the transportation system of the whole city.

Building Design
The main volume of the building complex is a slim linear volume with several functions in different floors. These
different functions are connected by voids, which are creating a soft link between different functions. It is also an
effective foyer space while a lot of people are using during big events. The volume of each use is reflecting the 
city scale. With this the building volume is cut in smaller parts, creating softer image.