The Chudong parking structure is situated in a suburban town of Taiwan where its population is less than one hundred thousand people and its demographic composition is made of mostly Hakka Group.

The economic of this particular town is heavily based on tourism and agriculture and therefore the central market plays a significant role in the day to day life of its people. However, the traffic around it has been horrendous throughout the years, and to find a parking space usually requires a miracle. Therefore to build a carpark has been the primary goal by the local authority to accommodate the growing needs for parking.

The design of Chudong Parking Structure set out to respond to the chaos of its immediate surrounding with simplicity in geometry and form. The building in plan is composed of two semicircles on two ends with shear wall structure for taking the majority of seismic loads while the rectangle in between is constructed of simple post and beam structure that accommodates most of the parking requirements. The resultant form is both light in tectonics and rich in cultural representations especially the louver exterior provides a visual reference to the Hakka Umbrella artifacts.

The Chudong parking structure is a project which we seek to blend with the existing urban fabrics with simplicity in design and elegance in appearance so that the combination of both would create minimal intervention but richness in lifestyle.

Team:
Architect: Q-LAB
Photography: Studio Millspace