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the technologies, politics, social life, and economic engines of urbanism continue

to change. lt needs to be aware of the very real environmental crises of our time,
and to pay close attention to change and adaptation, recognizing allthe dynamic intricacies of the natural and social ecologies at work in the city. Form making has a powerful agency and should be part of the toolbox, but form making alone can-

not account for the complexity of the contemporary city. The city is an intense locus of innovation whose collective creativity is always in advance of the disciplines of architecture or urbanism that attempt to control it. We need to learn

from the city itself, taking full advantage of the city as a laboratory for future
urbanisms. We need to cultivate new ways of working that can respond to unanticipated but inevitable climactic, social, technological, programmatic and economic changes: an architecture and urbanism that parallels the evolving dynamic of the contemporary city.

PROJECT FOR THE REUSE OF TI{E FORMER TAICHUNG MUNICIPAL

AIRPORTSITE
More than twentyyears ago, Rem Koolhaas wrote:'A second type of innocence is

required to believe at the end of the century that urban development and built
areas can be projected and reasonably controlled. The built, 'the

full' is incontrola

lable-subject to the maelstrom of political, financial and cultural forces-in

perpetual transformation. Of the void the same is not true; maybe the void is the subject where architectural certitudes are still convincing."r This polemical decla-

ration has something of the status of a founding insight for our project, but it
requires some revision. The Taichung Municipal Airport was relocated in the late r99os, leaving
a

massive void in the city. While not exactly central, the six hundred-acre site sits

' t

within the ring road and is encircled by a built fabric characterized by diverse scales
and multiple uses. As such, it presents an unprecedented opportunityto design
a

new urban quarterfrom the ground up, large enough to acquire its own identityyet
NOTE

continuous with an existing city fabric. The project will act as a catalyst for further
a

r. Rem Koolhaas, "Project for 'Ville Nouvelle,"' Qyadems

(October-December

growth as the surrounding fabric is transformed, creating greater density while maintdining its dynamic mixture of uses.

r989):

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ten over with a new pattern. Despite this apparent freedom, it was evident from the beginning that the project could not be a typical "visionary" master plan. lt had to
be more strategic, anticipating the complex logistics of

implementation without los-

ing its fundamental identity as a project. Hence the appeal to the strategy of the
void: the project is structured around a large figural open park that runs the length
of the site from north to south.

The project begins with thatwhich we can reasonably expectto control: public open space and roadways. Forthe project, the park is not an empty space; it is

not, strictly speaking, avoid. lt is full of both matter and activity. lt is a dynamic
patch landscape, colonized by plant life, traversed by roads and pathways, populat-

ed with people and pavilions, and activated by periodic events and festivals.
Special sites for cultural buildings and civic monuments are created within the
park. The "nothingness"

ofthe park is not passive; it is an active, living landscape

that performs work, moving energy and matter around the site and helping to
restore its natural and social ecologies. For architects, open space is too often

thought ofas empty space; landscape architects, by contrast, are experts in the
void. One of the lessons of landscape urbanism is that urban "nothingness" has
its own rules, its own potentials, and its own ordering systems. The figure of the park is visually distinct from the surrounding fabric, but

functionally and organizationally knitted back into the site as a whole. An early
scheme was based on movement systems, but the final form of the project is
based on water restoration, with a system of large surface tiles derived from catch-

ment areas connected to the context through feeder canals. ln designing the park we have resisted the easy association of the "natural" with curvilinear, organic forms; the park declares itself to be wholly artificial, while functioning as a rich ecological resource for the city.

lf the void can be designed and controlled with a reasonably high level of
specificity, the surrounding urban fabric can be only loosely steered over time. lt is

indeed "subfect to the maelstrom of political, financial and cultural forces," that
characterize any growing city today. The cily is a dynamic system possessing its own

momentum, and the figural void of the park represents a limit that will be defined
over time as the city grows up to that line, marking its edge as an absence. The park

also serves as an attractor, enhancing real-estate value and triggering local develop-

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ecology, and we deploy-without apology-an eclectic sampling of techniques, new

and old. We have learned from the experiments of landscape urbanism and landscape ecology, yet we can also make use of strategies that are (for some) uncomfortably close to New Urbanism. The roadways and civic platforms appeal to ideas

of

infrastructural urbanism, while the architectural strategy in the large buildings,

though stylistically distinct, is not so far from Aldo Rossi's idea of the architecture of the city. The Taichung project is a highly specific response to a particular set of circumstances, but by virtue of its scale and complexity, it can also serye as a test case for a new toolbox of urban strategies for the twenty-first century.

TAICHUNG GATEWAY PARK PROJECT

Stan Allen Architects received the mandate to transform Taichung's decommissioned municipal airport into the city's new culiural district. The z5o-hectare site is currently an
urban void located at one of the main growth corridors of the city. What to do with such an

immense opportunity for urbanisml Our proposal creates a single unifiing element that incorporates as many program elements as possible: circulation, green sPace and natural
ecologies, new cultural institutions, and research facilities, as well as major public attrac-

tors such as the convention hall and the new dome. The new parkway infrastructure defines
a zone of intense design investment

while sirategically opening up edges of the site to exist-

ing urban development pressures.

The shape ofthe park is clear and becomes a recognizable icon that represents an opti-

mistic future for the city ofTaichung. The design foregrounds active green space, creates
sites for new cultural institutions, and solves the major circulation issues. From a develop-

ment perspective, the curving shape ofthe new Park creates four neighborhoods, each with distinct identity: Canal District, Cultural District, Academic Corridor, and College Town.

Taichung's recent urban growth has destroyed the connection to its traditional canal network and natural water systems. A restored hydrological network offers an opportunity

to rethink site ecologies and create new public space. The design and execution ofboth the

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convention center, a multipurpose dome, three hotels, a shopping mall, and an intermodal transport station, and will be connected and covered with Taiwan's largest inhabitable green
roof. At the southern edge ofthe 3oo-meter observation tower, visitors will have the chance

to experience a panoramic view ofthe park, the city, and the natural landscape beyond.
Through this project and other development initiatives, the city of Taichung hopes to capitalize on the emergent creative class in Taiwan and establish itself as a knowledge and cul-

ture city in the region. In the city ofthe twenty-first century, ifcitizens and identities are
mobile and fluid, the old Taichung airport site is large enough to supPort multiple civic
lifestyles that forge a new identity for the city of Taichung. While a diversity of uses will activate both the built spaces and the open space ofthe site, a rich mix ofprograms and popu-

lations on site would help construct the twenty-first century city.

TAICHUNG GATEWAY PARK PROJECT PROJECT: Taichung Cateway Park City; L0CATI0N: Taichung, Taiwan,
R.O.C.; ARCHITECT: Stan Allen Architect, Princeton,

N.J.-Stan Allen

(principal in charge); Carlos Arnaiz (associate parlner and project designer); Benjamin Cadena, Marc McQuade, Rosalyne Shieh, Frank Mahan. Ryan Neiheiser (project team); ENGINEERS: AruP-Trent Lethco. Susan Lim (traffic); C0NSULTANTS: Arup-Trent Lethco, Susan Lim (planning); Scape-Kate Orff, Daniela Fernanda Serna Jimenez (landscape); Drangonpolis-Carol Wang, Christina Liao, Ritchie Huang. Jing'Yao Chang (local planning); David Tseng (architecture and urban design adviser to the City ofTaichung); CLIENT: City ofTaichung; SIZE: 5zo acres; ESTIMATED DATE OF C0NSTRUCTI0N: zoog
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