A warehouse in the future city center
The site is located within a developing area close to the high speed railway station in Taiwan's 2nd largest city, Taichung. Half-surrounded by rails and a lifted highway, the site is on the west fringe of a commercial zone. With its original program as a warehouse, the building meant to be a machine circulates goods and parcels functionally. The lack of interaction with public is expected so the discussion of what more could it be was raised among the design team, while the site is just 800 meters away from the station and visitors on the platform could easily spot it.
The strategy of creating a hub not only for goods but also for citizens was therefore carried out. To take advantage of the site's nature of having an intimate relationship with the high speed railway station, start-up offices and small-sized retails were added to the program to work as the game changer. Now the building has turned into a hybrid, rather than a mono-functional warehouse. Those new elements had given us a chance to transform the stereotype of warehouse design, which is always considered as a massive box without any contribution of publicity.
Could a warehouse coexist with pleasant public space?
To evoke a highly interactive commercial street, a setback of 20 meters from the east side is imposed and a double-storey arcade was formed. Big trees line in double row, stairs interlocked with decks and street furniture are arranged along the pavement to trigger comprehensive street movement. Besides, since most of the outdoor space was enclosed within the security line, a sky garden on top of the building’s east wing is created as a gift to citizens, connected with the ground floor by a staircase attached on the east façade. Citizens are now invited to climb up to explore the magnificent city view. Moreover, people are now able to have a glimpse of how a warehouse is operating by looking through the linear window or interacting with workers on the landings. The staircase is not only a symbol of publicity but also a social interface connects inside and outside. We hope the image of embracing citizens that the building conveys could become a good example to inspire the following development around this area. Sooner or later, the staircase will gradually be covered by lush climbing plants and become a green artery merged with the treetop and the sky garden.
