Gate of Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Competition Entry, Kaohsiung Cruise Terminal and Port Service Center

Gate of Kaohsiung is a new gateway into the city, a contemporary version of the traditional city gate. The large table-like gateway creates space on its top for port service offices. At the table’s base is a large covered plaza and Kaohsiung’s cruise terminal.

The form’s scale creates a threshold for both passengers and large cruise ships. It acts on its own as a destination, attracting the eye of all ships and passengers in the harbor.   Unlike a traditional city gate, the table creates a shaded and dry public space during Kaohsiung’s sunny, hot days and the rainy season, making it appropriate to its climate and context.

The form reads as a pure white line framing the city in 4 directions beyond, a lookout onto a future in the new Kaohsiung and Southern Taiwan. Once through the terminal, the plaza is a departure point to the city and beyond.  The long granite plaza connects the adjacent future hotel, resort, park, and retail development. The plaza floor is carpeted with a pattern of trees, grasses, and color to create micro-environments and intimate spaces. On the plinth sit the table, a terraced resort, and hotel towers. Parking, terminal drop-off and pick-up traffic, and retail spaces fit under the plinth.

Instead of consolidating the Terminal and Service Center into one object, Gate of Kaohsiung separates each program into a ground and roof to create an urban room. This large urban room makes space for civic life sheltered from Kaohsiung’s tropical climate.

Program: Cruise Terminal and Port Service Center; Mixed-use complex with hotel, retail, restaurants, health center, spa, underground parking, public green space and plazas

Terminal and Service Center Area: 35,000 sm (375,000 sf)

Client: Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communication, Taiwan

Location: Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Status: 2010 Competition Entry for Port of Kaohsiung Passenger Transport District: Port and Cruise Service Center, Terminal, and Master Plan

Design Architect: Forrest Fulton

Project Team: Federico Cavazos, Jared Fulton, Brandon Shigeta