Project Description
Award
The Kaohsiung Port Terminal may appear to belong to the universe of luxury cruise liners—think the webbed, almost skeletal superyacht that Zaha Hadid Architects has designed for shipbuilders Blohm+Voss—but this port is not part of that realm, at least not architecturally. A distinction must be made for the populism and urbanism that New York–based RUR Architecture evokes with the port’s plan. Sited laterally with respect to the city grid and positioned close to public transit, the terminal accommodates pedestrian traffic via a continuous, elevated public promenade that parallels the waterfront. The public programming for the project, which includes a conference hall as well as retail and office space, rises from the central plinth; there, these functions intersect laterally with the transit and service-center operations of the terminal. “There’s an interesting relationship that this building has as an object that is relatively separated from the ground,” juror Marcelo Spina said. “I like that aspect of it, the idea that there is some kind of independence.” —Kriston Capps