The Ocean Climber

Idea projektu

Ocean Climber is an architectural proposal that reconsiders the relationship between the city, the mountain, and the sea in Taichung. As urban development continues to expand inland and the Port of Taichung grows, the sea has gradually disappeared from the everyday perception of the city. At the same time, Dadu Mountain has long been regarded as a geographical boundary separating the urban core from the coastline.

The project takes the planned B8 station of the Taichung Metro Blue Line as a new urban node and transforms Dadu Mountain from a barrier into a connector between the mountain region and the coastal landscape. Through a continuous sequence consisting of a metro station, landscape pathways, a cable car system, and an observation tower, the design creates a journey that gradually reveals the geography, history, and territorial relationships of Taichung.

Rather than functioning solely as transportation infrastructure, the B8 station becomes a gateway to a public recreational network on Dadu Mountain. The observation tower is conceived as a vertical museum and viewing platform, where different levels frame specific landscapes and narratives of Taichung, allowing visitors to understand the city through movement, observation, and interpretation.

The objective of the project is to reconnect citizens with the sea through spatial experience, re-establish awareness of Taichung’s unique mountain-and-sea identity, and demonstrate how architecture can serve as a medium that links landscape, memory, and urban development.

Popis projektu

As the Port of Taichung continued to expand and urban development gradually spread inland, the sea has slowly disappeared from the everyday perception of the city’s residents. At the same time, Dadu Mountain has long been regarded as a geographical boundary separating the urban area from the coastline. This project takes the Taichung Metro Blue Line crossing Dadu Mountain as an opportunity to rethink the relationship between the mountain, the sea, and the city. The proposed B8 Station is envisioned as a new urban node, transforming an overlooked landscape into an interface that reconnects the mountain corridor with the coastal region.

The design establishes a continuous sequence composed of the metro station, landscape trails, a cable car system, and an observation tower. Together, these elements guide visitors from the urban environment into the mountain terrain, allowing them to gradually experience changes in topography, light, and perspective. Rather than functioning solely as transportation infrastructure, B8 Station becomes the gateway to a public recreational network on Dadu Mountain. The landscape trails connect natural and urban environments, while the cable car offers a slow and immersive journey that reestablishes the relationship between people and the surrounding landscape.

At the end of this journey stands a vertical museum that combines exhibition spaces with panoramic observation. More than a viewing platform, the tower functions as a device for reading the city. Visitors enter the tower at its middle level, ascend directly to the top floor, and then descend through a spiraling sequence of exhibition spaces. Different floors respond to various layers of Taichung’s identity—including Qingshui, the harbor, industrial districts, the airport, and the urban core—through curated exhibitions, material transformations, and strategically framed views. In this way, the historical development of Taichung is translated into a spatial narrative that can be both observed and experienced.

Rather than presenting the sea directly, the project seeks to reveal it through a process of concealment, fragmentation, and rediscovery. The presence of the sea is gradually perceived through specific viewpoints, distances, and moments of movement. Visitors must actively search for and recognize the connections between the city and the coastline. Upon reaching the lower levels of the tower and looking back across the city, they realize that the entire journey has been an act of rereading Taichung from the vantage point of Dadu Mountain.

The Ocean Climber is therefore more than a path leading to a higher elevation. It is a journey of rediscovering Taichung and reexamining the relationship between the mountain, the sea, and the city. Through movement, observation, and interpretation, architecture becomes a medium that reconnects landscape, memory, and urban identity, allowing the sea to once again emerge within the collective perception of the city.

Technické informace

The project establishes a continuous spatial sequence that reconnects the city, the mountain, and the sea through movement and observation. By integrating transportation infrastructure with public recreational facilities, the proposal transforms Dadu Mountain from a geographical boundary into a connector between urban and coastal territories.

Dokumentace

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