Studio Gang Wins Second Prize at Taipei Pop Music Center Competition

The Taipei Pop Music Center International Competition recently announced the final winners of Stage Two with the first prize going to Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture PC, New York (with FEI & CHENG ASSOCIATES, Taiwan), second prize to Studio Gang Architects, Chicago (with J.J. Pan and Partners, Taiwan), and a third prize for Office dA, New York (with D. Y. Lin Architecture, Taiwan).

When the Stage One shortlist was announced in last fall (previously on Bustler), four honorable mentions were also given to Morphosis Architects, Toyo Ito, JDS Architects, and J. M. Lin Architect, P.C.

Hosted by the Taipei City Government Department of Cultural Affairs, the competition asked firms to design a pop music venue and urban performance center that promotes and celebrates Taiwan’s role as a global center of pop music performance and production. With an area of approximately 7.65 hectares, the center base is located in Nangang District, Taipei City, nearby the MRT Kunyang Station. The principal space design comprises of an indoor performing hall with 4,500-6,000 seats, an outdoor performing space with 15,000 standing seats, exhibition space for reputed musicians, a digital library, a medium and small indoor exhibition and performing live house, industrial communities and incubation space, etc.

Following is the second prize-winning proposal by Studio Gang Architects in detail. Images and description by the architects:

The 21st century is an age of electronic connectivity that radically expands pop music’s audience, but simultaneously threatens its economic viability. The Taipei Pop Music Center confronts this challenge by making real space and live experience more exciting and more enduring than their virtual counterparts.

The building consists of two primary venues: the Oculus and the Indoor Main Hall. The Oculus accommodates 13,000 fans under a giant void that opens to the sky. This opening absorbs sound and draws out heat through stack-effect ventilation, optimizing both acoustic and thermal conditions in a semi-outdoor environment, and creating a one-of-a-kind venue that is ideal for large-scale pop music concerts.

The Indoor Main Hall accommodates 5,600 fans in a range of configurations suitable for pop music, musicals, and award events. Leading to the Main Hall, the “Famous Steps” act as the TPMC’s 21st-century front porch: its amphitheatre-like topography creates opportunities for spontaneous performances and social gatherings. A “Public Loop” connects all of the venues in a continuous thread of public space that includes restaurants, retail kiosks, and recording booths—culminating at the Hall of Fame on the building’s third and highest floor.

The building’s compact design preserves the majority of the site for use as a vibrant urban park, serving the many outdoor music festivals of Taipei while adding important green infrastructure to this rapidly developing neighborhood of Nangang.

Studio Gang Team:
LEAD ARCHITECT – Studio Gang Architects
ASSOC. ARCH – J.J. Pan & Partners
STRUCTURAL - Arup Beijing
FP / MEP / BP – Arup Hong Kong
ACOUSTICS - DHV
SCENOGRAPHY - dUCKS scéno
LANDSCAPE – West 8
GRAPHICS / EXHIBITS - C&G Partners
RENDERINGS - Labtop

Images: Studio Gang Architects