Xiafu Activity Center

IMO Architecture + Design & JC Cheng + Associates, Architects and Planners

Project description

The Xiafu Activity Center is located adjacent to the Hongfu-Gong Temple, the soul and meeting place of the people of Xiafu. The temple’s ornate sweeping roofs are full of symbolism for the Taiwanese people, bursting with a broad spectrum of unique and characteristic colors that sit in stark contrast to a grey industrial background – remnants of Taiwan’s industrial past. The design of the Xiafu Activity-Center embraces the vibrant, chromatic spectrum of traditional temples with their sequences of colors, putting them within reach to become part of the ground level spatial feeling and experience. Xiafu demonstrates that in a landscape dominated by fast, economical, utilitarian architecture where cultural considerations are left as superfluous and thus are diminished, architecture can fulfil more than just a utilitarian function. It can stand as an example of how Taiwan's rich cultural past can still inform the next generation of architecture to give it much needed cultural relevance and placeness. It can enhance and contribute to the positive development of a unique cultural identity and the subsequent vitally important unique perspectives that it produces.