UNDER CONSTRUCTION Amit Wolf
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION Amit Wolf
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KAOHSIUNG PORT AND CRUISE SERVICE CENTRE
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RUR ARCHITECTURE
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aiwan’s push in Kaohsiung, Keelung and Kinmen to integrate global systems of transport and exchange with leisure and civic functions collects and scrapes sea and sky. RUR Architecture’s (Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto) 38,800sqm Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Centre, the first in this series, sets the stage for novel architecture for global cities. Alongside a masterplan for a raised promenade for Kaohsiung’s bustling waterfront, RUR also presents a distinctly elegant engagement with building possibilities and means. In general, within the three-part scheme, the centre’s public and retail segment, nestled between the arrival/departure concourses and the civic tower, is the more coherent and distinct structure. Integrating perimeter and core solutions, its underlying five-storey diagrid reformulates the architecture of long-span shells. RUR’s work-up to the Port and Cruise Service Centre has seen real challenges, but
also real advances, within the economy of U the steel-framed shell. The shell of the Wellington Bomber underlying RUR’s proposal for the 1994 Cardiff Bay Opera House (and the digital expansions on the geodetic system, as in the opera’s foyer) or the Yokohama Port Terminal competition a year later, a more classic truss system presenting an array of modulated sections, are obvious examples. Less obvious is the poured-concrete exoskeleton of O-14 in Dubai. (While it couldn’t be formally further from the steel shell, O-14’s concrete diagrid subscribes to the same logic of arched-truss purling: that of structural dynamics by which forces are checked transversely, across the arches). In all these examples, the steel-frame’s gauntness, a hallmark of truss logic, is worked-off by the effects of the finished surface. The determining factor in Kaohsiung is the nested shells’ doubly laid steel-truss system, which is sandwiched by 20,000 →
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‹‹ An example of adjectives used to tell us what architecture is and to avoid the need to say what architecture actually does, delaying the real argument until the building. In the meantime, see Atlas of Novel Tectonics (Reiser and Umemoto, 2006). EFG Section (top) A Mechanical B Offi ce C Port and cruise service centre lobby D International conference hall E Retail F Boardwalk G Departure lobby H Arrivals lobby I International security J Document check K International waiting lounge L International luggage claim
Service Parking Circulation routes of departing / embarking passengers (above) International travellers Domestic travellers O Domestic gate P Domestic / international gate Q International gate R Drop-off area S Ticketing and check-in T Escalators U Exit / ground transport V Immigration / customs M N
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PROJECT
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→ sales models of new buildings). From here a skylight-covered, U-shaped stairway leads to the second floor rooms. Those facing the street are used as offices for the developer, Huaxin (known in English as China Fortune), while those nestled within the trees are VIP rooms and tearooms for meeting with potential clients. The connections between these rooms reinforce the project’s concern for nature. Four outdoor courtyards dot the path; one contains a shallow pool from which water drips into the koi pond below. Branches from the camphor trees intersect the pathways and enter a meeting room (the architects did not receive the correct measurements of the tree, with the happy accident forcing them to cut out a space in the screen for the branch). Detailing comes from the structure; for example, the path includes triangular gates formed by trusses instead of traditional round moon gates. A simple loop makes circulation around the building easy, but the variety of views along the way keeps it interesting. The complexity of the spaces and their materials and connections has the effect of making the building look bigger than it is. Huaxin Business Centre is located in Xuhui, a Shanghai district famous for the sycamore-lined streets, colonial-era villas and high-end boutiques and restaurants of the former French Concession. But the Caohejing Subdistrict of this district is not that Xuhui. It sits between Shanghai’s Inner and Middle Ring Roads and had been considered the suburbs back in the →
Level One
03. Natural light dapples the interior spaces. 04. The existing trees have been subtly and effortlessly incorporated into the building fabric. 05. Mirrored finishes and water features both confuse and delight, provide pleasing contrasting experiences.
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HUAXIN BUSINESS CENTRE
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WANGJING SOHO 04
Location: Beijing, China Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects Review: Hao Ma Photography: Virgile Simon Bertrand
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