“One More” Kaohsiung Residential Tower in Taiwan by spatial practice

Article source: spatial practice

The recent groundbreaking ceremony for Bellevueciti Construction marks the start of construction onspatial practice first residential tower “One More” in Kaohsiung City, at the exclusive front row of the Art Museum Park.

In our culture today, we are constantly over-exposed to information and data. It is important to create a living environment that provides a relief from these elements through a reconnection with nature. The simplicity of design for the tower is the result of maximizing the dramatic relationship to the natural environment and taking full advantage of its location directly in front of the park. The horizontal band defines the uninterrupted view of the park, mountain, and sea; while also performing as a sustainable shading element to reduce heat gain.

Kaohsiung Tower Park Museum View., Image Courtesy © spatial practice

• Architects: spatial practice
• Project: “One More” Kaohsiung Residential Tower
• Location: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
• Program: Residential, Retail, Parking and Landscape
• Status: Under Construction
• Year: 2012
• Client: Bellevueciti Construction
• Partners in Charge: Dora Chi, Erik Amir
• Project Architect: Ryo Otsuka
• Team: Zhang Yan, Emily Wu, Taylor Williams, Carol Lao, Andrea Sze
• Local Architect: Jason Chia & Associates.

Kaohsiung Tower Horizontal maximum View of the Museum Park and city. Image Courtesy © spatial practice

The essence of simple, natural and quiet living from the natural environment is extended into each unit through the generous balcony garden and then into each living room. The design result comes from a long process of analysis of the typical Taiwan residential typology. To break the monotony of the typical-found typology, the simple band gesture varies in height on each floor to exemplify its organic inspiration. The scheme promotes the essence of natural living in the urban environment.

The 100 meter tall concrete tower is composed of 53 2-bedroom units with open kitchen and living room views toward the park. Resident amenity spaces include private lobby and resident amenity spaces, back private garden, and roof garden. Retail units are located at the 1st and 2nd Floors.

Kaohsiung Tower Sub Tropical Park View., Image Courtesy © spatial practice

Spatial practice believes in greatness. We strive to realize desires and dreams.

spatial practice is an accumulation of ideas, people and circumstances. We believe that true design is about bringing order into complexity – a dynamic complexity – the essential feature of human beings, a culture, or a society.

We look beyond basic conditions and restrictions – such as site, zoning, program and budget – to identify the essence of each spatial intervention. We catalyze architectural and formal thinking into a deeper context that concerns human interactions in specific cultural, social, and economic settings.

Kaohsiung Tower The Bands., Image Courtesy © spatial practice

Committed to creative-thinking and thorough decision-making, we design as a team. We collaborate with some of the best creative minds from different fields to create a dynamic and open platform that confronts and addresses spatial issues with a wide spectrum of insights.  In constant operation, the office’s research arm, spatial tactics, strategically nourishes this platform through continuous investigations, lecture series, publications by playing with polarities and differential, from ordinary to extraordinary.

Since its formation, spatial practice has paid particular attention to materialize the concept by confronting the necessary constraints along the way. We devote equal rigor and criticality to every project stage, regardless of scale.

Kaohsiung Tower view from Below., Image Courtesy © spatial practice

spatial practice is formed by Dora Chi & Erik Amir as a collaborative office for architecture, urbanism and design. Projects include several residential towersin Taiwan; iconic towers in Harbin West Rail Station master plans in China andTaiwan; eco-spine twin towers in Beijing CBD; a maritime and pop center in Kaohsiung; a mixed use urban redevelopment complex in Parramatta, Australia;an arts center in Maribor, Slovenia; a renovation of a corporate headquartersin Beijing; several fashion showrooms and boutiques in Paris; an interactiveinstallation for Montblanc in Beijing; private residences in Beijing and Israel;among others.

Kaohsiung Tower Ground Breaking Ceremony. Image Courtesy © spatial practice

Erik Amir is an Israeli, DPLG ( (FR) registered architect. He began his academic venture at Politecnico di Milano (Italy), continued to Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris La Villette for a Master of Architecture, and then to the United States at Georgia Institute of Technology receiving a Master of Science. His work has been recognized and awarded by the Emerging New York Architects Committee, AIA-NY and the French Institute for Architecture. Erik previously worked with Michael Arad on the World Trade Center Memorial for the victims of 9-11 in New York. He started his collaboration with Rem Koolhaas at OMA New-York and continued to Beijing to participate on prestigious international projects in Taipei, Tianjin and Shenzhen. He is a visiting Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Kaohsiung Tower City Boards, Image Courtesy © spatial practice

Dora Chi is an American, New York State registered Architect and LEED accredited professional; she received her Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University. Her passion for sustainably built environments has her advocating the realization of ecological design. She was awarded with research grants from Cornell University and the American Institute of Architects to conduct research on massive urbanization in China. Previous experiences with I.M. Pei Architect, Handel Architects, and Foster and Partners include prestigious international projects ranging from large scale high-end residential buildings, international cultural and mixed-use buildings in the United States, Middle East, and Asia.

Kaohsiung Tower Design Process, Image Courtesy © spatial practice

Kaohsiung Tower Concept Diagrams., Image Courtesy © spatial practice

Kaohsiung Tower Typical Floors plan., Image Courtesy © spatial practice

Tags: Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Categories: Residential, Tower

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