Client

Taipei City Government

Location

Taipei, Taiwan

Type

Open Competition, Uncommissioned Proposal

Description

This design for the Taipei Pop Music Center offers an efficient, yet aggressive approach in extending the concert high to a 24-7 experience. Each major program element is treated as an acoustically autonomous concrete mass. The large outdoor auditorium stage, Pop Hall of Fame, 6,000 person indoor arena and combined industry programs, bridge and adjoin within a large, electronic, glowing glass enclosure. Recognizing tight budget and extreme land coverage restrictions, the proposal deploys two strategies: densification and maximization. While the potential of large numbers of people might suggest decentralization and dispersion, the proposal embraces a crowd mentality, concentrating activities in close proximity to one another, encouraging overlaps between various programs, between “back of house” and “front of house” activities. The enclosure and “mass within a mass” strategy maximizes media surfaces allowing activities to be virtually redistributed and dispersed on the site. The programmable LED mesh surface, integrated with the glass enclosure is designed to showcase a spectrum of visual possibilities - from high-res to low-res, from the loud “chatter” of event advertising to ambient, “mute” light shows. Designed in collaboration with Chris Counts Studio Landscape Architects the projects both minimizes its footprint while tightly connecting to its surroundings. Fantastical large scale land forms, thick with hot pink azalea carpets, solid gold ginko forests and bright red flame tree groves punctuate the electronic, pop nature of the venue as it spreads around the site.