Pavilion & Park Theatre Guanshan
Guanshan [關山] is a sleepy small town in Taiwan's East Rift Valley that offers rich cultural, natural and historical resources. A team led by professor Chiou from NTUST initiated a community project that aimed at better showcasing local values and activating public spaces through reclamation of abandoned or unused places.
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Shot on Konica Autoreflex TC
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Shot on Konica Autoreflex TC
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One part of the reclamation of the historic centre of Guanshan [關山] includes the small park site at the intersection of San-min and Min-zu road, a former site of a Japanese-era government-officials pension building. the is situated halfway between the train station and senior high school, surrounded by other pensions which were incorporated in the project. The idea was to create a new activity space - an outdoor-theatre, where events like concerts and other performances can be held, where students can hang out after school and where local festivities can take place.
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As the little park with its surrounding historical buildings provided a natural kind of stage, the project tries to accentuate it by encircling it with seating and shading elements. The principle idea was a shape generated by a moving pole encircling the plaza - starting at the southside as a shading pavilion, twisting so that it would block the changing angle of the sunlight - turning into a vertical shape of lantern poles and finally evolving into low horizontal shapes in the northern part - creating seating podiums and market stands. The shading pavilion features a long bench copying the existing park outline and proving seating for both performances and passersby.
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The project tries to reflect typical elements and materials that can be found in throughout the town of Guanshan and other Taiwanese small small towns: Omnipresent bamboo poles and trees, subtle steel truss frameworks and corrugated steel shapes typical for Taiwanese DIY house extensions, brick walls of abandoned buildings from the early 20th century and loofah lanterns, which are a local speciality.
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