Kinmen Passenger Ferry Terminal

The ancient village of China and Taiwan has a new planning paradigm. The new waterfront site (designed by AECOM, working with JihYuehChen Consultants Ltd) is transcending an amphibian shift toward an optimistic future. The tradition of engineering new populations now exhibits a new frontier of blurring the international boundaries of regionalism. The project is charged with capital planning incentives for people visiting and travelling to and from the Mainland. This is a new transitory place with ephemeral occupants seeking a natural escape and lush landscape. The project aspires two main construction phases that deliver and feed an output of 3,900 people per hour passing through. The massive intake and discharge of people create a canvassed environment of flux, motion, and theatre. The pliant edge condition of the proposed site broadcasts an anchored covered mall approach to securing the port design placement. The overall exterior ground plane edges of the transportation hub are displaced faces for generating an visual moment of bliss before leaving the island and a kiss of life immediately landing in the new development. The KPF(T) seeks to create a new conceptual plexus for passengers travelling to the island. The ferry boat transportation hub project driven by thriving eco-tourism seeking a modest insertion into a larger masterplan. The island offers a sustainable initiative to green energy. While the terminal project is an iconic vessel that localizes and orientates a new destination, the facility appeals to the past, present, and future of Taiwan. Tourists are constantly shifted and filtered and re-assembled in this artificial urban-scape.

The dynamic gestures offer a strong sculptural agenda that attempts to fascinate and harness the required program demands. The syntax of the design is unforced and denies homogenisation. The constant shifting of volumes offer design latitude that considers scale, function, program, security, and materiality. Our daring gateway design commands immediacy to the environment and it formally augments the island as robust attractor. The complex is charged with a design process of discovery that captures a liberal signature with a multi-faceted approach. The main retail operations are housed within the upper and lower level common areas and the lounges are suspended at high elevation to see boats enter and exit. The building is perched about the main street level to lift and express a floating and hovering of loose amenities. The complex offers many spatial gifts of natural light and ventilations into the matrix of enclosures and exterior shell envelopes. The items make a "Para-lactic Structure" of between and interstitial functions as well as nodes and light apertures. The main arrival is series of warped planes that create invisible vector that co-mingle, direct and invite visitors. The front central lobby offers a panoptical glimpse of the multi-layered interior. The transparent crystalline front is laced to make a strong distinction between public use and landscaped exterior. The departure lounge is adjacent to the baggage handling and the ground utilizes a mechanized conveyor to assist users going from the passport centre to the pick-up zone. The exotic synthesis of this new organic designed proposal elicits an eruptive spirit (the only constant in life is interfacing with change).

The LA project team appreciates the sponor and their collective efforts to make architecture open to all who are registered design professionals.