Kaohsiung's Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Performing Arts by Mecanoo

Razqal · #1 Posted: **May 5, 2010, 5:44 AM**

Mecanoo’s Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts has broken ground in Kaohsiung with a festive public celebration hosted by President Ma Ying-jeou and attended by Architect Francine Houben. The new cultural complex will be the largest in Asia at 141,000 sqm, featuring the most modern in theatre technology, housing a concert hall with 2000 seats, an opera house with 2250 seats, a playhouse with 1250 seats, a recital hall with 500 seats, a public library and studios for music and dance.

The Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts sits in the northeast corner of the metropolitan park, which functions as a great green lung for Kaohsiung. The center is not only the first performing arts facility in southern Taiwan, but also the largest investment in culture and the arts made by the Taiwanese government in the last two decades. The center promises to be the new icon for the 2.7 million residents of Kaohsiung and marks the transition from a port city to a modern, cultural metropolis.

Francine Houben, founding architect and creative director of Mecanoo, based her design on Dutch architectural concepts which involves the seamless integration with the surrounding landscape. Inspired by the lush banyan trees in Wei-Wu-Ying Park, she created the organic and liberal theme for the Center’s design. The tree trunks, aerial routes and shade create a space dotted with openings which allow fresh air to flow. Through the integration of the open space, the green belt and the vast area itself, the Center and the Park become one.

[img]hhttp://www.archdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/1270733854-meca-taiwan-vextnuit2-finale-v6-1000x666.jpg[/img]

The great roof provides shade and protection from Taiwan’s tropical climate and forms an informal public space where city residents can stroll, practice Tai Chi, meditate or just relax. Inspired by ancient Greek theatre, an outdoor seating area on the roof was created, just at the point where the roof dips to the ground. The surrounding park in turn becomes an informal stage. The park features light slopes, valleys and water pools creating intimate public spaces.

Programme: Theatre complex of 141,000 sqm in the Wei-Wu-Ying Metropolitan Park with a total capacity of 6,000 seats: Concert Hall 2,000 seats, Opera House 2,250 seats, Playhouse 1,250 seats, Recital Hall 500 seats, public library of 800 sqm, 1,000 sqm of rehearsal/education halls for music and dance and stage building workshops.

Razqal · #2 Posted: **May 5, 2010, 5:47 AM**

http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=97852&ctNode=445

Work begins on world-class Kaohsiung arts center

* Publication Date：04/08/2010
* Source： United Daily News

The Kaohsiung Wei Wu Ying Center for the Arts broke ground April 7 and is scheduled for completion in 2013, at an estimated cost of nearly NT$10 billion (US$317 million).

“This shows that despite tight budgets in the post-recession era, all government agencies are fully dedicated to promoting art,” said President Ma Ying-jeou.

The Wei Wu Ying Center for the Arts, based in the former military camp of Wei Wu Ying and the present Wei Wu Ying Metropolitan Park on the border of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County, was designed by the internationally renowned Mecanoo Architecten b.v., a Netherlands-based architecture and planning company led by Francine M.J. Houben.

With a total floor area of 141,000 square meters, the world-class performance center is expected to look like a skate fish swimming in the sea, with smooth exterior lines flowing like sound waves.

Performance venues within the center will feature a central theater seating 2,260, a medium-sized auditorium accomodating 1,254, a concert hall for 2,000 and performance hall holding 470. Other facilities include an outdoor plaza, a gift shop, a multifunctional space and a rooftop observatory.

Emile Chih-jen Sheng , minister of the Council for Cultural Affairs, said the center will be the largest in East Asia. “Another international landmark will soon arise in Taiwan,” he added.

Kaohsiung County Magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing said, “Kaohsiung has been derided as a cultural desert for years. After nine years of hard effort, I am very happy to see construction work for the center has finally begun.”

Chen Chu, mayor of Kaohsiung City, urged the central government to put more emphasis on southern Taiwan. “With as much as NT$1 billion allocated annually to the National Theater Concert Hall in Taipei, arts projects in the south should be taken better care of from now on.”

A special performance by leading Taiwanese opera thespian Sun Cui-feng of the Ming Hwa Yuan Arts & Cultural Group and renowned Henan opera diva Wang Hai-ling, leading a troupe of 100, highlighted the groundbreaking ceremony. (TYH-THN)