C-LAB Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab – Urban Art Park « Landscape Architecture Platform

The wall demolition project slowly transforms the park. The boulevard of Renai Road is an important green belt and also the lungs of the city. The original 100 meter wide road plus the extra 30 meter wide green belt where there were walls is nearly two times wider than the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in France.

The stereotypical image of Air Force Command Headquarter is the high walls and heavy-fortified. Sitting by the flourishing Camphor forest on Renai Road, the Air Force Command Headquarter induces a mystical atmosphere. You can see the buildings of the period, the fort hidden in the trees, the banyan trees growing with the time and the walls almost cracked by the tree roots. As time goes by, the rise of new ideologies gives rise to the decline of old ideologies. It used to be a symbol of power and increasingly has the mark of nature. The seeds carried by the wind grow out of the building and weeds also sprout up the pavement.

By taking down the walls, the design is originally in an attempt to make the space more visually lively. The magnificent trees are used to bring the separate spaces together. We create possibilities by manipulating remove-if-not and keep the walls where some old trees grow. Adjusting planting holes by the sidewalk creates quiet space pocket where people can also enjoy the cool under the shade of trees. The horizontal curve leads the traffic flow naturally to connect all possibilities, involving the activities and bringing people together.

In terms of the planting design, we preserved 20 trees, including Banyan tree, Hoop Pine and other types of trees. In addition to the original arbor, we try our best to preserve other arbors, including Comphor Tree, Dragon Juniper, Mulberry and etc. We keep the trees because planting has historical traces. On the other hand, we plant ferns under the trees to make use of the poor growing conditions. Because the base is near the Jianguo Holiday Flower Market, we also try to use planting as the extension of the flower market. Planting herbs stimulates all senses of people. It is not only a park but also a comforting place for citizens.

Also, according to different types of performance holding in Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB) we design different fields, like a field assigned to 2-3 people for chatting, a field to 10-15 people for busking, a field to 50-100 people for Grassland Music Festival or becoming an extension of the interior exhibition. It is also the site for the event “Future Bricks II /Deconstruction and Reconstruction” held by DMO.

The meaning of design is to make life more wonderful. We keep looking for more extra spaces to create more possibilities and provide an organic and linear space in the city.