Sou Fujimoto: First Prize / Taiwan Tower International Competition

Tenderer: Sou Fujimoto Architects / Sou Fujimoto Nationality: Japan
Joint Tenderer: Fei & Cheng Associates / Philip T.C. Fei Nationality: R.O.C.

Design Concepts

21st Century Oasis
Our proposal for the Taiwan Tower, and the model for the Green-Architecture of the new generation, is the '21st Century Oasis'. This Tower is an Oasis of the Future, a new type of Oasis of the City, and an Oasis unique for Taiwan.The '21st Century Oasis ' is largely formed in 2 parts.
The grand structural frame which encases the site inspired by the Taiwanese tree Banyan, creates a shaded comfortable semi-outdoor space.
The roof-top Garden floating 300M above ground level, provides extraordinary oasis within the city, and simultaneously represents the image of Formosa (Divine Island); richness and beauty of Nature. The 21st Century Oasis Tower itself is representative of the Spirit of Taiwan.
Roof-top Garden suspended 300m above ground level in the sky provides the people of Taichung with an Oasis in the city. This green-filled Garden will be visible from everywhere and will be a symbolic landmark and existence.

Taiwan Tower as an origin of the 21st Century
The Eiffel Tower marked the new age and became the renowned Tower that represented the era within the 20th Century cultural centre, Paris. After the Eiffel Tower was conceived, many Towers; a variation of Eiffel Tower around the globe competed in the race for the Highest-Tower. The tower proposed here is a Tower as an origin of 21st Century. We see the Taiwan Tower undertaking the role that Eiffel Tower had undertook in Modernity for the 21st Century and beyond. This is a typology of Tower that has never before existed.

GREEN ARCHITECTURE
The environmental design will be implementing various strategies of renewable energy systems and passive design methodologies as listed below.
Green Roof / Rainwater Harvesting / Solar Hot water Panels / Wind Turbine / Photovoltaics Cells / Ground Source Heat Pump / Desiccant Air-Handling Unit / Natural Ventilation by Solar Stack Effect.
These systems will be the solutions to mitigate the load impact onto the infrastructure and, as a result, will be targeting reduction of the half energy consumption/carbon emission in this building integrating with the innovative architectural design. For the LEED accreditation, obtaining 19 credits in the EA C-1 will be the significant contribution to acquiring the LEED Gold level.

STRUCTURAL CONCEPT
The superstructure of the tower is proposed to be a steel construction comprised with Perimeter Columns, Inner Columns, Intermediate Columns, Spiral Beams and
Roof Beams.
All columns are circular hollow sections of approximately 800mm diameter. While Inner Columns are arranged longitudinally on the surface of the "Taiwan Cone" for an aesthetic reason, Perimeter Columns and Intermediate Columns will be mixture of vertical ones and leaning ones so that they can resist lateral loads due to wind or earthquake effectively.
Spiral Beams form two spiral-shaped braced planes, which extend between Perimeter Columns and Inner Columns from the ground to the roof plane, and are expected to prevent all the columns from buckling. Each spiral plane rises approximately 30m near the ground where the axial force of the columns are relatively high, and the rise increases gradually up to approximately 60m as it goes higher.

'Light of Life'
Taiwan Tower by night pulsates and flows like a life-form, and eventually falls to sleep. The light of this Tower has no obvious form. Like air, and at times like a haze in the horizon, the intensity and color moves from place to place. The Tower representing all natural phenomenon, we see this form appropriate for the ecologically-rich site and the transparency of the Tower structure. Expressing a transparent, nonobjective feel to the air-like light. The schemes projected onto the Tower is inspired by the richness of the natural phenomenon of Taiwan, and to the hearts of people of Taiwan. The Light of this Tower will evoke and engage to all, the spirit of Taiwan- the graceful nature characterized by the term Formosa. Light that allows one to feel and be connected to the spirit of Life, this will be the ever-changing face of Taiwan Tower, Taichung Gateway, and for Taiwan.

CIRCULATION
In order to exist as a comforting resting place for the surrounding campus and the adjacent cultural zones, the Tower will provide a plaza-like space in direct continuation to the Green-belt. And by the Green extended above in the roof-top Garden, the formation brings a three dimensional continuation of the Greenery and Garden. This Tower will create an URBAN OASIS in the Taichung Gateway, in the intersection of where Transport/Education/Culture/Nature converge.

Team Profile

Sou Fujimoto Architects
Established in Tokyo, Japan in 2000, we, Sou Fujimoto Architects are a Tokyo-based group of over 15 architects, designers, craftsmen and thinkers all dedicated to pursue their craft, operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and innovation. We provide a diverse and rigorous professional service to clients around the world, positing ideas and imaginations to the built environment.
We have designed houses, temporary installation to medical and cultural facilities that have been recognized as vanguard designs throughout the world. Architecture is ubiquitous for Sou Fujimoto Architects.
Sou Fujimoto Architects has won numerous awards and competitions: AR Award Grand Prize and 2008 Japan Institute of Architects Grand Prize for Children's Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, the first prize award at the World Architectural Festival 2008 in Barcelona, and recently the Wallpaper Award 2009 to name a few.
In 2007, the practice won a competition for a library for the Musashino Art University in Japan, a 6,444 square meter library, which was completed in early 2010. In addition, the practice has been rigorously involved in numerous International competitions and commissions, including a first prize for the Beton Hala Water Front Center in Belgrade, Serbia and a 64,000 square meter Library and Commercial mixed-use complex in Norway. Needless to say, the practice is evolving both in terms of projects it conducts and the philosophy of architecture in contemporaneity.
Our process is collaborative and experimental, the output both primitive and avant-garde. We pursue projects as a way of exploring the world and humanity, our curiosity ranging widely in our client's different and diverse universes.

FEI & CHENG ASSOCIATES
Fei & Cheng Associates is an architectural firm providing comprehensive services in building design, land development, regional planning, construction management, interior design and landscape architecture.
The firm was founded in 1974 by Mr. Philip Fei and Mr. Mei Cheng. Both founding partners received academic and professional training in Taiwan, Europe and USA. FCA has assembled multi-disciplinary staff with various expertises. For each project, individual members are carefully selected to reflect the necessary skills for the scope and scale of the project so as to satisfy the client 's requirements with the given schedule and budget.
FCA has extensive experience in the design of projects of different uses and sizes, including commercial, office, residential, institutional, hospital, industrial and hotel buildings and complexes. FCA is also experienced in large-scale planning and urban design projects. Our organization and methodology ensure that contextually and technologically responsive design solutions are provided. We have completed major buildings such as Taiwan University Hospital Reconstruction, Veteran General Hospital Reconstruction, National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, The National Museum of Natural Science, and Linkou CKS memorial gymnasium.
The philosophy of the firm is to integrate Chinese cultural value with advanced technology. Supported by advanced computer capabilities, the firm has been working closely with a range of client organizations and providing efficient and cost-effective services. FCA has been sensitive and in pace with rapid social and economic development of this country. We have responded to various challenges and will always be in pursuit of design quality, excellence and innovation.