Hualien Masterplan

HUALIEN CITY, TAIWAN

2010

CLIENT

Taiwan Land Development Corporation | Hualien County Government

TYPOLOGY

Hospitality

SIZE M2/FT2

120,000 / 1,291,669

STATUS

IDEA

Hualien is a small town in a beautiful
landscape between mountains and rice fields
on the east coast of Taiwan. In this rural region, bound to experience massive growth, BIG was invited to conceive a dense development of holiday homes and hotels.

In designing the Hualien masterplan, BIG was faced with the archetypical dilemma of creating a tourist destination: how to
preserve and enhance the natural beauty
and dramatic landscape while increasing the
population to inner-city density? BIG’s proposal aims to create a dense type of urban development with the quality and character of a mountainous natural landscape.

The rural setting is characterized by the
parallel bands of rice fields and other crops.
BIG imagined an environment where both
built and unbuilt would be defined by the
same undulating ribbons of landscape.

In Taiwanese landscape paintings, threedimensional mountain formations are
indicated by layering of simple outlines
to create a sense of space and depth. In a
similar way BIG creates three-dimensional
structures by superposing simple profiles to
achieve the desirable floor depths.

Simple Plan, Sculpted Section — The efficient volume of floor plates is broken down into slimmer volumes. By shifting the layers we can ensure that daylight and views reach deep into the floor plans.

Circulation Through Valleys — The layers gently dip down to form pedestrian canyons and shortcuts between the buildings, lushly planted with green gardens.

Sunlight — The glare and thermal exposure from the low-angle morning and evening sun is blocked by the landscaped stripes.

Views — Apartments open up to the cool northern light and the high incoming southern sun, framing the best views of the surroundings.

Micro Climate — The form and orientation of the structures create tool and comfortable microclimates at the pedestrian level.

Evaporative Cooling — The extensively landscaped roofs further mitigate heat gain to increase the comfort of the balconies and terraces, diminishing the energy loads for cooling.

The resultant architecture appears like a
stylized natural landscape of peaks and
valleys, hillsides and canyons. Pools appear
like mountain lakes, running tracks like
hiking paths, and balconies and terraces like
plateaus and ledges.

With sculpted sections contrasted by practical
floor plans, the Hualien Hills are a pragmatic
utopian attempt at rural densification. The
design preserves the ecological qualities of
nature by extending and amplifying it without consuming them with a lifeless
urban environment.

A 1,000 m2 prototype was built at the project site to showcase a residence within the Hualien masterplan. The model unit offers a glimpse into the lifestyle and amenities of the development, including a new furniture line designed exclusively for the Hualien Residences by the BIG Product team.

On a backbone of efficient layouts and rational
circulation, the undulating roofs provide
the neighborhood with a great variation in
residence types and communal spaces.

Inside, the apartments inherit attributes
from the angled silhouettes to add an almost
traditional vernacular feeling of attics and
porches in the middle of dense modern
development.

Beatrice Melli Bjarke Ingels Catherine Huang Eric Li Finn Nørkjær Jakob Lange Jan Magasanik Jesper Boye Andersen Jinho Lee Kekoa Charlot Lorenzo Boddi Mikkel Marcker Stubgaard Molly Hsiao Rou Huang Ryohei Koike Teodor Cristian Fratila Vinish Sethi Adriana-Bianca Diaconu Agnieszka Kwiecien Aivars Zogla Alberto Herzog Alvaro Garcia Mendive Alysen Hiller Ambra Chiesa Andreas Müllertz Andrew Lo Anna Juzak Anu Marjanna Leinonen Bartosz Kobylakiewicz Camila Luise de Andrade Stadler Chris Beaudin Christin Svensson Dominic Black Dominik Mroziński Dominyka Mineikyte Eduardo Camarena Eivor Davidsen Emily King Espen Vik Frederik Wegener Giedrius Mamavicius Gwendoline Eveillard Horia Spirescu Ioana Fartadi Scurtu Jakub Wlodarczyk Jamie Oliver Galienne Jesafa Templo Joanna Anna Jakubowska Johanna Nenander Jonas Aarsø Larsen Joos Jerne Juan Antonio Silvestre Bengoa Junjie Yan Kasper Reimer Hansen Kirsty Badenoch Laura Wätte Lise Jessen Lola Conte Lora Borislavova Luca Senise Lucas Stanley Carriere Maciej Jakub Zawadzki Magdalena Maria Mróz Manon Otto Maria Teresa Fernandez Rojo Mathias Bank Stigsen Megan Fiona Cumming Miao Zhang Min Ter Lim Nicolas Millot Nigel Jooren Nina Vuga Paddy Fernandez Pedro Savio jobim Pinheiro Perle van de Wyngaert Qianqian Ye Rasmus Pedersen Ren Yang Tan Richard John Seymour Richard Mui Richard Teeling Romea Muryn Sandra Fleismann Santtu Johannes Hyvarinen Sebastian Liszka Sergiu Calacean Sigrún Harpa Þórarinsdóttir Song He Soo Woo Taylor McNally-Anderson Terrence Chew Tobias Vallø Sørensen Vilius Linge Xi Chen Xin Su Ying Zhang