AGER Group’s Boston Studio won an Excellence Award winning first prize for the Kaohsiung Port Station Urban Design competition initiated by the Urban Development Bureau of the Kaohsiung City Government in Taiwan. The 15.42 hectare site is located between the Hamasen and Yenchen historic commercial centers of the 1920’s and 40’s and at the intersection of three of Kaohsiung’s thriving neighborhoods home of the recent Maritime Music Center and Port Terminal competitions. The competition aimed at transforming the historic rail yard and port station into a new city destination, creating a progressive model for local urban renewal. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The competition’s dual goals of cultural preservation and urban development are achieved in AGER’s proposal of a ‘Rail-scape’ through a three phased development. In phase one, AGER proposed three strategies to establish a new identity for the project. They include developing a transportation and industry museum, preserving key portions of the railway for public and special event use, and transforming other portions of the rail yard into an art exhibit/market and rail-scape park corridor. The corridor would be animated with outdoor sculpture, restaurants and retail in specially re-designed rail-cars, and the former sugar warehouses renovated into creative industry lofts.
