Kaohsiung Pop Music Center, Taiwan
The pop music center in southern Taiwan is designed by Manuel Monteserín. Located next to the mouth of the love river, in the port city of Kaohsiung, the project proposes a flexible design as an ensemble of intricate geometries, taking cues from the seabed. Spanning 88,000 sqm, the center is made up of four architectural ecosystems that represent a thematic area: the great wave, whales, dolphins, corals. and all connected by a series of parks and walking paths.
The ‘great wave’ volume, hence its name, takes a bent form assembled with a hexagonal grid. this structure accommodates an outdoor auditorium for 12,000 people defined as a green mantle, a concert hall for 3,500 guests, and two towers including an office program, a museum, and rehearsal rooms. In the beginning, the structures were designed separately but later the design team decided to position them back to back creating a crack between them as a large access atrium.
The whales take shape as six ‘live houses’ designed for events, concerts, or presentations. Next comes the dolphins, including five restaurants raised on pillars and joined by a walkway. The coral is designed as an exhibition center and outdoor multipurpose area with a large roof formed by hexagonal modules supported by branched pillars. There, commercial and exhibition programs take place along with other activities like street markets, street dances and theaters.
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