The National Kaohsiung Performing Arts Center / Honerable Mention

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

The National Kaohsiung Performing Arts Center / Honerable Mention

The National Kaohsiung Performing Arts Center/ARTECH ARCHITECTS / Kris Yao + Chien Architects & Associates / 1-Isueh-I Chien + Stonehenge Architects International / Victor Yu Chu Su

arts center, Architecture Competition Annual 2008, Chinese, Kaohsiung,

Main perspective

Location : Kaohsiung. Taiwan

Function : An center

Site area :550,000m2

Bldg. area : 25,456m2

Total floor area : 12,699m2

Structure : Architectural Concrete. cor-ten Tension structural glass .

Design participation : Po-wen Hsiao, Kuo-chien Shen, Nina Yu. Chien-hao Tseng, Yen-hsun Li(ARTECH ARCHITECTS) Sheng-chieh Huang. Chu-yin Yalin Wu, Tzu-ai Chouthien Architects & Associates) Wen-kai Li, Yi-chue Lu(Stonehenge Architects International) .

Site plan

Architectural Concepts :

With its complex and extensive program, the NKPAC is inevitably large in scale. However, a monumental, singular and massive structure that attempts at a universal containment of all required programs runs into the risk of alienating not only its users. but also from the surrounding environment. Thus. driven from the wish to create a friendly, welcoming and approachable space, our design for the Performing Arts Centre is realized in a series of sinuously elongated structures. These relatively low and dispersed volumes merge into the natural landscape and allow the complex to be perceived by the spectators as 'A Place in the Park' - a place one can feel comfortable to move about and relax within. These forms on the landscape allow people to enter and penetrate easily, while its different parts of the arts working within, working together -joined together- to make a meaningful whole.

conectivity diagram

The concept form generating diagram

The design intends to 'make sense' -not only its form feeds the function the building flows from the interplay of the theatre and arts functions within, but also its structure, services, construction and sustainability to make every rational sense in dealing with the local seismic, weather, economics and energy concerns.

green architcure system

Sun + Shade

green architcure system

Air Cond + Nature Vent

Apart from providing functional and efficient performance spaces another significant aspect in the design concepts is to encourage public participation and interaction with or within the public spaces. The intension of these areas is to welcome and engage the public -including those who may have no particular knowledge of or interest in drama, opera or ballet- into the building. With spatial flexibility to support different genres of arts and performances, the various formal auditoria, together with a series of public spaces through out the complex, are able to cater for events ranging from grand theater productions to small or even spontaneous street performances. The complex will not open to the public solely for performing purposes it will be an exciting playground that is open and welcoming to the public through out the day. With supports from a variety of catering retail, and other recreational amenities, the place is where people meet, mingle, share diversified experiences, and create collective memories.

front view

Programs :

The NKPAC is composed by three visually distinct sinuous forms the 'solid' one. or the stage domain. the 'ribbed' one or the audience domain, and the 'soft' one which houses the public functions. These three forms interweave with each other, create void spaces in which the auditoria and the linear public 'thoroughfare' on the sunken level are contained. The solid 'stage' section acts as the backbone to the complex. This reinforced concrete structure is designed with minimum number of openings, in order to fulfill the technical and operational requirements of the back-of-the-house func-tions such as stages, shops, dressing rooms, technical spaces, rehearsal rooms. etc. With service access through the underground level, the technicians, staffs and the artists are routed proficiently and safely to their work places or destina-tions. Due to its continuous form, the various facilities are onveniently shared and easily managed by different theaters. The 'audience' section houses the audience functions such as entries and foy-ers for each theatre, intermission lounges, toilets, stairways and elevators bringing people up and down. To enhance the interactions between the patrons and the general public, the winding promenade at ground level is designed for park-goers to move in and out freely throughout the complex. The structure of this section is composes of a series of portal steel frames, allowing views to the park and vice versa.

longitudinal section

The soft 'public section flows in and out, attaching either to the stage side or to the audience side. and accommodates lobbies, cafes. and small pockets of open spaces that permit impromptus and informal performances.

These three undulant shapes interweave with each other and form three pods that contain the Concert Hall, the Lyric Theater, and the Playhouse, while the Blackbox Theatre is attached to the southern end. The shapes of these performing halls are derived from an Egg' shape dissecting itself with its own geometry, thus creating different volumes with outer 'crust surfaces and inner 'substance surfaces. These volumes are visible to the spectators from the underground Thoroughfare as well as through the portal steel frame from outside of the complex. The remaining bits and pieces from the Egg' are scattered among the plaza and the park these follies serve as vertical accesses to the underground levels and also utility spaces.

1st plan floor

Unquestionably, the theatrical climax, or perhaps the crown jewel of the complex. is the four performing halls. Situated respectively from the north to south they are the Concert Hall with 2075 seats, the Lyric Theatre with 2000 seats, the Playhouse and the Blackbox Theatre, both are able to transform into differnt modes of arrangement to serve different types of performances.

zoning plan :

zoning plan