The site of Shueipingwun Park in Tainan, Taiwan was originally part of the coastal marshlands and was used for aquaculture, an important part of Tainan’s history. Its surrounding areas have since been reclaimed, and the park is now an integral component of the central district of Tainan City. Not only is it a short distance from all the main cultural and economic hotspots, it also occupies one of the largest plots of city blocks in an area known for dense small plots.

The park can be defined by the user groups and the way they use the park: a) program/activity areas, and b) circulation paths. The program areas can be divided into open areas and shaded areas. The shaded areas are the most significant parts of the park, being made up of old and large, leafy trees. While the trees are well distributed, the open areas are awkward and disjointed. Furthermore, their placements interrupt the circulation pattern of the paths. Because of the interruption, the daily users, e.g. senior citizens, joggers and parents with little children will experience obstacles every time there are major events or group activities in the open plazas. We inherently have two interconnecting problems to solve: the rehabilitation of the park to its originally-intended design and the placement of parking spaces under it. How do we improve the park while capitalizing on the existing traits that work well and people love? How can we address the problems creatively without sacrificing the original beauty of the park?

Considering the importance of the trees, we strived to minimize the felling of trees in the creation of a new parking basement. Because the approach is to utilize the areas with fewer trees, we can form a zone that is suitable for excavation. This is then rationalized with principles of most economical construction, and efficient parking design. Our strategy is to divide the site into three zones, and the parking lot can be organized in a coherent and logical manner, consistent with the functions above at ground level.

Like the soft waviness of fabric, we manipulated the land surface to rise and fall. This achieves two things—we can create openings into the ground such that all main spaces of the parking basement have direct access to light, air and nature. These slopes are designed to be gentle and landscaped to evoke a sense of bringing the landscape down into the basement. A visitor can choose between outdoor steps or the grass for an easy walk to ground level. Their positions also eliminate any dark corners from the basement, and the generous openings allow for natural breeze intake from the cardinal points. For better crowd management, larger gathering areas will have larger slopes. We are also able to create new sculptural forms that demarcate the various open spaces with buffer zones and intermediary spaces, such as a sunken courtyard, an amphitheater and an area with seat-planters inspired by historical local fish ponds for conversations and social gatherings.

TEAM CREDITS:
Min Ter Lim, Shih Da Tseng, Michelle M. Wu, Sharyn Hsin-Yu Hwang

COLLABORATOR: Team Architects Partnership (TAP)