UI | Maritime Plaza

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KEELUNG MARITIME PLAZA | TAIWAN

Plan

View from the seaside

View from the city

As the main port of the Northern Taiwan region, Keelung is a highly populated area contained by the sea and the mountain. The interface with the harbour occurs at the heart of the city where intense traffic conditions remain to be resolved. The proposal for the Maritime plaza focuses on three main goals:

To achieve the release of urban pressure a this bottleneck area by providing a new network of pedestrian connections between city blocks, key transportation nodes such that it brings an integrated new experience of the water front and the city.

To create a new gateway image from the sea and from the highway at the point of arrival to the harbour which will be a strong visual and performative experience of the are and its culture.

To design a distinct public space for pleasure, sports, public events and festivals which creates a world class design and event spaces for the city.

The project is an intense infrastructure and an extreme landscape that creates new conditions to experience the city and the harbour. Viewed from the harbour and the highway the new landscape produces a continuous datum and an undulating artificial hill in the seafront elevation and creates an ‘edited’ image of the city. Here the view of street is erased and the urban skyline is juxtaposed over the artificial landscape.

The structure for the new landscape projects over the water and produces three primary sea front public spaces: the Canopy below, the Maritime Terrace Park and the new walk along Zon-Yi Road.

The Maritime Terrace will construct a new urban street elevation along Zon-Yi Road while maintaining and framing its relation to the water. The structure will provide a semi covered promenade along the north side of the street that will be 6m wide. The promenade will step down to the water’s edge expanding the space of the undercroft and give dramatic framed views of the harbour beyond.

The space under the canopy is a highly charged urban room of intense activities that respond to the continuous passage of people on the elevated walkway with information, computerised filmic surfaces of advertisement, video projections and lighting.

Above, the Maritime Terrace Park offers promenades, viewing of the sea and gatherings of crowds in an expansive calm space. Here the ground of the city and presence of cars is forgotten with only the upper part of the street facade and signage to play against the harbour view. The Terrace, which can be declared a free internet access zone, is a space of free roaming and loose overlap of different leisure activities, public performances and festivals.

At the East Park the structure undulates to an artificial hill connecting with the surface of the park on the ground level. The new topography of the artificial landscape recollects the topography of the region’s coastline.

The East end of the Maritime Terrace Park connects with Station Square where in the 3rd stage development, it will be a pedestrianised civic plaza. At this stage the ground of the plaza rises to connect the water’s edge with the podium level proposed by the new urban development. The square will create an active public space in front of the new city hall and the restored historic buildings.

Status: 2nd Prize | Location: Keelung, Taiwan | Year: 2003 | Architect: Farjadi Architects | Client: Local Authority | Budget: 10million GBP | Structure Engineer: AKT | Environment Consultant: Atelier Ten | Structure: Steel |