Taiwan's new transport hub

The Netherlands-based architecture firm Mecanoo’s design for the new Kaohsiung Station will introduce a generous amount of public green space to Taiwan’s second city.

With its organic, curvilinear shape and landscaped canopy, the station reaches out to the city in a powerful gesture and represents Kaohsiung’s vision for the future as a sustainable city. The new Kaohsiung Station will be a true transportation hub integrating train, metro, local and intercity bus services, taxi and bicycle. Arriving from the underground train and metro platforms, the station’s central hall is a sunken plaza that unfolds underneath a bright ceiling of oval-shaped lights.

The station’s canopy connects a hotel, commercial buildings, shops, restaurants and other facilities for the local community and travellers.  Atop the multi-layered landscape is a cycling path running east-west. The colonial station building, which will be relocated to its original site, is embraced by the canopy and symbolically reconnects the old and new Kaohsiung.

The station is the crowning achievement of the Kaohsiung Metropolitan Area underground railway  project, which started in 2014 and includes seven subterranean stations along a 9.75-kilometre railway tunnel. Completion of the Kaohsiung Station is expected in 2024.