Tainan Group 2

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION International Urban Design Workshop Tainan 2011 NCKU - AA - NCTU

teachers Lawrence Barth Dominic Papa Maw-Chang Yen Tzu-Chang Lee (Joe)

students Huai-Yuan Chang Chih-Chyi Chang Yen-Yu Chen Shiau-Lan Chiou Chen Hu Sharon Shih Hui-Hsin Cheng Aida Mofakham Angela Jeng Florian Dirschedl Gaurang Nabar Mithila Satam Olga Yatsyuk William Wehbe

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION International Urban Design Workshop Tainan 2011 NCKU - AA - NCTU

The proposed burying of the railway in the centre of Tainan provides a unique opportunity for the city to rethink the vocation of its station. However, the project’s implications transcend the actual scope of the 10 ha site of the station area and affect a larger part of the city than just the eight kilometre tunnel strip. Therefore, the project asks for rethinking the vocation of Tainan’s centre as a whole.

Hence, a wider territory has to be considered, inviting all urban actors and participants to engage in a project that exceeds the station limits and discusses the future of not only parts of the city but the entire region.

By widening the scope, Tainan’s role and image can be reconsidered and challenged in different scales.

The contemplation of local tendencies as well as regional and national developments allows for a flexibility and adaptability of the design processes over time. A comprehensive and incremental design strategy can thus reveal the potential of the project for the centre as well as the city and the region.

TWIN CITY REGIONS

p. 2

TAINAN + KAOSHIUNG

p. 4

URBAN MOBILITY SYSTEM

p. 6

STATION DISTRICT

p. 8

A NEW SURFACE

p. 10

URBAN CONSISTENCY

p. 12

CIVIC LANDSCAPE

p. 14

ARCHITECTURE OF INTENSIFICATION

p. 16

INNOVATION CLUSTER

p. 18

FORESIGHT CLUSTER

p. 22

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

p. 24

TWIN CITY REGION

4

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

The city of Tainan is part of a metropolitan system in the West of Taiwan, where a number of prosperous city regions are linked through a highly efficient high speed rail network. This transport network allows for easy accessibility of all major cities along the western coastline and promotes them to operate as one labour and knowledge market. By their joint efforts, the different cities establish an integrated system of manpower and technology development and perform as Taiwan’s economic spine in the spatial as well as the figurative sense.

This spine proves to be top-heavy, however: Albeit acting in concert as a whole, the cities contend with each other within this composite. The high tech region of Taipei / Hsinchu is here most successful and produces a clear polarity towards the North of the country.

The success as high tech regions of a number of twin cities such as Kopenhagen/Malmø and San Fransisco/ San Jose is ultimately rooted in the synergies they create. A large diversity in population, cultures as well as in economic production and knowledge capacities is distributed within an urban region that is linked through a series of infrastructure projects and made accessible for the entire region.

Imbalances between adjacent cities are thus levelled, the cities’ individual insufficiencies are compensated. A joint market is created that exceeds the performance of the cities on their own.

In order to remain competitive and create an effective counterpart to Taipei/Hsinchu in the South, Tainan will therefore have to vitalise its individual potencies and boost its characteristics but - at the same time - take advantage of the proximity to its twin city Kaoshiung.

Twin City Regions

STSP

HSR

dislinked cities DISLINKED

TAINAN / KAOSHIUNG

interconnected cities INTERCONNECTED

SAN FRANCISCO / SAN JOSE

HSR + rail

metropolitain entity KNOWLEDGE + LABOUR specialised regions MARKET

2 poles Taipei / Sh?? + Kaoshiung / Tainan

COPENHAGEN / MALMØ

TAINAN + KAOSHIUNG

6

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

As Taiwans major exporting centre in the South, Kaoshiung is dominated by heavy industries, logistics and transportation entreprises today. Both, the airport as well as the harbour have national significance.

In contrast to Kaoshiung’s industrial focus, Tainan features an enormous quantity of “soft skills”. The city’s rich (colonial) history, numerous cultural resources as well as culinary diversity are not only basis for a high quality of life but also background for a prosperous tourism. A divers science and research landscape - with NCKU as one of the best Taiwanese universities - fosters a wide range of high tech industries. Talented graduates of the city’s university are hence easily absorbed in the South Taiwan Science Park North of the city, as an example.

The two cities’ potentials, however, seem to be underdeveloped and dislinked from each other at the same time. Consequently, an urban development strategy is needed, that not only aims at revealing, deploying and strengthening Kaoshiung’s and Tainan’s individual economic as well as cultural and educational characteristics, but also addresses the cities’ concurrence and cooperation.

TAINAN

STSP

HSR

KAOSHIUNG

Twin City Region Tainan/Kaoshiung

URBAN MOBILITY SYSTEM

8

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

22@Barcelona_eco city TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE

Key to the recognition of the two cities of Kaoshiung and Tainan as urban region is their comprehensive accessibility. Burying the railway in central Tainan is on the right track for this purpose; yet nowhere near enough its actual requirements towards an regional public transport system.

The potential of the transportation system between Tainan and Kaoshiung does not seem to be efficiently developed. Hence, the station project should trigger a discussion about a new vocation not only of the station itself, but also of the railway system and its associated networks.

Curitiba_Rapid Transit

URBAN MOBILITY SYSTEM

22@Barcelona_eco city

TAINAN

In this regard, the current local public transportation can be upgraded to a smart mobility system that interlinks and converges the entire region. The integration of smart systems - such as parking management and mobile transport information - into a larger reconceived system is an opportunity to showcase local high tech excellence and will ultimately increase both acceptance of and participation in public transportation. In coherence with a an urban development strategy on a regional scale, this system can unfold its full potential.

Curit

STSP

STSP

TAINAN

HSR

HSR

COPENHAGEN / MALMĂ˜

22@Barcelona_eco city

To quote an example, the now inefficient bus system could be rethought as polycentric and integrated local network that serves the entire city and enables easy access of all quarters. As a consequence, the current bus knot in front of the station could be dissolved, leading to a slowed down traffic situation and a better and safer pedestrian environment in the station area.

KAOSHIUNG

KAOSHIUNG

Curitiba_Rapid Transit system HsinChu_shuttle sy Toronto_ecocab 22@Barcelona_eco city Curitiba_Rapid Transit system BARCELONA - 22@

CORITIBA - BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM

HSINCHUN - SHUTTLE SERVICE

H

Toronto_ecocab TORONTO - ECOCAB

transport infrastrUctUre

Toronto_ecocab

reorganisation of the local bus system

Urban mobility system

Toronto_ecocab

MOBILE INFORMATION SYSTEM

HsinChu_shuttle system

HsinChu_shuttle system

STATION DISTRICT

10

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

The redevelopment of the station area in the course of the railway project provides an opportunity to pull the introduced ideas together. By assembling the surrounding urban actors of the central business district and of the adjacent university and the cultural quarter, the station’s mere functional vocation can be enhanced to become key element of the core knowledge and innovation district within an expanded metropolis.

As a much larger area than just the station area itself will be affected by the railway project, a design strategy has to indicate and incorporate adjoining sites and detect possible synergies. Consequently the framework has to be expanded, including NcKU’s campus in the West and a housing quadrant in the South.

KNOWLEDGE + INNOVATION ENVIRONMENT

transport infrastrUctUre

FORESIGHT CLUSTER

STSP

NCKU

CBD

CULTURAL CENTRE

HOUSING INNOVATION

Urban mobility

expanding the project’s scope

A NEW SURFACE

12

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

The construction of the railway tunnel creates a possibility not only to simply spatially link the currently separated quarters in the West and in the East of the station, but allows for the introduction of a new surface: a field of possible activities between the city and the university that takes into account the adjoining spatial characters and qualities - such as the university’s sense of privileged spaces - and establishes a spatial and programmatic character of its own.

The aspired spatial conjunction is established through a new pattern of differentiation that is guided by the framework of the extended the street grid. This pattern mediates between the city and the university campus and establishes a spatial hierarchy as well as a strategic planning principle that can adapt to change and intensify over time.

INTENSIFICATION

PATTERN

FRAMEWORK

SURFACE

STATION DISTRICT

URBAN CONSISTENCY

14

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

CONVENTION CENTRE

The investigation of the infrastructure and public works cycles affords an opportunity to develop a planning strategy that gives thought to timing, reducing risk for investors and uses the planning process to assemble different stakeholders. The phasing strips running North South allow for an integration of the station infrastructure into planning processes and construction at an early stage and thus ensure planning reliability.

The differentiation of the streets along the station quadrant produces new frontalities and hence new addresses towards the city. The grain of the suggested urban fabric mirrors this differentiation, providing a flexibility of investment with smaller plots to the commercial western fringe and larger compounds on top of the railway tunnel in the East.

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES BUSINESS INCUBATORS

Differentiated from its neighbouring quarters, the evolving urban fabric will - at the same time - produce an infrastructural, programmatic and spatial consistency within the station quarter itself.

STATION BLOCK

CULINARY STATION

A

B

C

7

differentiation

mediation

phasing

11

11

40

7

CIVIC LANDSCAPE

16

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

Understood as a new surface of urban interaction, the station district can bring together key stakeholders and urban performers. The introduction of a continuous morphology and social infrastructure that are articulated over time allows for a functionally and programmatically divers urban quarter with its own spatial qualities and productive capacities: a unique urban landscape that establishes new ecologies and ways for the university, the city and private investors (such as the science park’s companies) to engage with each other, the other side of the station and beyond.

New patterns of work, work-space, organisational structures and joint ventures of two or more stakeholders can influence the organisation of buildings and the distribution of program and will emerge in the creation of new places of interaction.

The role of public investments - such as the convention centre in the North or the conversion of the protected historic station building into a cultural forum showcasing Tainan’s culinary excellence - as accelerators of a value-based development will add to this creation of a new civic landscape.

new places of interaction

ARCHITECTURE OF INTENSIFICATION

18

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

A number of precendences help to understand, how architectural planning can exceed a mere two-dimensional layering of program and functions. The plans’ vertical transperancy allows for new relationships within the buildings and establishes places of interaction that are located beyond the common trinity of Street/Square/Park and intensify spatial and collective - experiences: a sharp distinction of public and private spaces gives way to places of privilege that invite civic life into the buildings.

The examples given investigate the potentials of a rethought distribution in section, reveal spatial relations hitherto neglected and demonstrate the benefits of joint ventures for different stakeholders.

MODULATION OF PRIVELEDGED SPACES BRITISH LIBRARY, London Colin St. John Wilson architects courtyard: gradation of public spaces

CROSS-SUBSIDISATION + CO-LOCATION KING’S PLACE, London Dixon + Jones Architects offices + concert hall

INTENSIFICATION OF CIVIC RESOURCES PUBLIC LIBRARY, Seattle Rem Koolhaas / OMA extension of public spaces into building

REVEALING SPATIAL RELATIONS BOCCONI UNIVERSITY, Milan Grafton Architects laboratories + lecture hall + underground station

PROGRAMMING OF UNUSED SPACES KUNSTBAU LENBACHHAUS, Munich Kiessler Architekten underground station + museum

precedences

INNOVATION CLUSTER

20

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

In the southern section, one can begin to ask how to make use of the particular geometry of the railway tunnel construction in order to create an opportunity of a new housing district.

Anchored by the railway station in the north and bordered by the commercial edge on the West and larger institutions on the East including hospitals, a cultural centre and primary and high schools, the Southern Quadrant makes for an ideal live and work environment. By offering a variety of living spaces to attract both the existing residents as well as new families, doctors and recent graduates, the southern quadrant has an enormous potential for nurturing a rich innovation cluster.

To reduce the risk of this development as much as possible, the project can be broken into several stages to alleviate the burden of local businesses and residents from complete demolition. By choosing to develop the eastern strip of the railway first, it could alleviate the burden the transformation of the commercial edge to something that can develop over time. The plan also offers the option of moving the current residents to an adjacent block of an abandoned textile mill while introducing the new and older residents back into the developed area.

Furthermore, as the tunnel nears completion, a park or open space can be imagined on top of the existing railway line mirroring the linear garden found one block east of the site.

As time passes, this gradual development allows for the transformation of supporting businesses to adapt in surrounding areas that serve the new influx of residents and workers in a similar way that Hafencity used in their incremental phasing of buildings and amenities to create critical mass.

phasing

HOUSING TYPOLOGIES

22

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

Spatially, the depth of the parcel along the southern quarter varies in width, thus introducing a new set of typologies.

Though seemingly foreign at first, the typology of buildings actually is a mixture of the old and new.

Certain sections along the southern quadrant insinuate a commercial edge. They’re not necessarily retail oriented but could also be live and workspaces.

Secondly, low to midrise studio spaces offer a wider width of flexibility for different types of innovative clusters and larger households. Last, the taller apartment blocks are able to house the different types of residents and sizes of families.

The three typologies combined in one block creates a certain ecology conducive for information exchange found in creative environments.

Furthermore, the back to front orientation of the primary school or the park hints at a hierarchy of open spaces and the variation of plazas and setbacks the buildings have on the block making certain public areas more private than others. A block off of St. John’s Yard in Clerkenwell, London exemplifies this buzz of creativity with multiple entry points, different sized plazas, and the ability to move around buildings within the block including an eight-story apartment building, design offices, historic buildings and a corner market.

With new links between various kinds of housing and working studios in the knowledge economy, one can begin to see a different kind of street which may link back to the station, offering something different to the area, but nevertheless relatable to a Taiwanese community. This process of seeding new developments by the private sector can be followed as one moves back north towards a new front door of the University.

St John’s Yard, Clerkenwell, London

FORESIGHT CLUSTER

24

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

With the opening up of the new surface of the railway station, the university has a chance to rethink its new front door. The typical placement of dormatories and recreational facilities towards the back can be reconsidered in a more ambitious manner to invite both public and private investment such as research clusters.

The existing proposal for dormitories to be turned into research facilities is a good starting idea, but can be pushed further. The nature of the floor plates is good for just offices, but not laboratory spaces.

By attaching an additional structure connecting the two dorms, one can imagine a quality of space ideal for cross-interaction and information sharing between researchers, students and administrative workers. Furthermore, the distribution of dark to light spaces for particular uses such as laboratories or offices trace similar principles of the Seattle Public library as users move up through this new public space.

The South-Western corner of the university might be opened up by arranging a series of buildings which will facilitate incubators and a creative milieu in a new front situation facing the station. Based on the logic of open spaces of the university, the campus will be connected with the rest of the city by a sequence of open spaces through which the flow of people will be able to penetrate through the structure of the NCKU. Architecturally it will create a crossovers between the privileged zone of the University and the public spaces of the hotel, street market, park and other public entities surrounding the campus. The spatial differentiation will appear not only horizontally but also vertically, creating the conditions of a certain quality to facilitate the knowledge centre.

The sports fields might appear on the roof of the buildings with a view to the centre of the city and surrounded by cafes and restaurants. Multiple roof gardens will create a new quality for the space.

CIVIC LANDSCAPE DEVELOPING NETWORKS OF TRUST CULTIVATING OPPORTUNITY

Shangri La

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

26

Urban Design Workshop

NCKU + NCTU + AA

Tainan 2011

TAINAN KNOWLEDGE STATION

Widening the scope of Tainan’s station development not only relocates the city within a competitive urban region, but also allows for an integrated and comprehensive planning strategy that rethinks the city’s infrastructural embedment and accessibility.

Moreover, it includes key urban actors and detects possible synergies between them.

Relieved from the burden to master a mere infrastructural vocation, the station and its surroundings can thus evolve into an urban quarter that will a progressive place of civic, social and economic interaction. As joint venture - with all three the city, private investors and the university engaging in the creation of a civic landscape - the station district can unfold its full potentials to become an environment that is knowledge-based and innovation driven.