The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts has been awarded with the Digital prize — Idea-Tops Award in the 2017 edition.
The award ceremony was held in Shenzhen, the most dynamic city in China, with an audience of over 1000 people from all over the world. Associate Partner, Nuno Fontarra attended the event to receive the award and present the project to the audience on the 7th of December.
Idea-Tops is an important award which praises outstanding talents in the architectural and interior design field, its achievement is a global recognition to a designer’s career. Each year Idea-Tops organises grand tours to promote its winners to the world.
The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts will officially open in October 2018, 12 years after the first sketch that lead to the winning design back in 2007. With its 141.000 m2, the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts is the biggest theatre complex in world.
Inspired by the local Banyan trees with their iconic crowns, the vast, undulating structure is composed of a skin and roof, and connects an extensive range of functions. The curved steel structure was built in cooperation between a local and a Dutch shipbuilder. Underneath this roof is Banyan Plaza, a generous, sheltered public space.
An open-air theatre nestles on the roof where the structure curves to the ground, and the surrounding park forming the stage. Designed with the subtropical climate in mind, the open structure allows the wind to blow freely through Banyan Plaza. The seamless flow between interior and exterior creates opportunities for crossovers between formal and informal performances.
Project details: Theatre complex in the Wei-Wu-Ying Metropolitan Park with a total capacity of 6,000 seats: Concert Hall 2000 seats, Opera House 2260 seats, Playhouse 1254 seats, Recital Hall 470 seats, public library of 800 m2, rehearsal/education halls for music and dance, 2 congress halls with 100 and 200 chairs and stage building workshops.