ALP Logistic Republic Taichung / Che Fu Chang Architects
A warehouse in the new city center
The site is located within a developing area close to the high speed railway station in Taiwan’s 2nd largest city, Taichung. Half-surrounded by rails and a lifted highway, the site is on the west fringe of a commercial fragment. With its original program as a warehouse, the building meant to be a machine circulates goods and parcels functionally. The lack of interaction with public is expected so the discussion of what more could it be was raised among the design team, while the site is just 800 meters away from the station and visitors on the platform could easily spot it. The strategy of making an authentic hub not only for goods but also for citizens was therefore carried out. To take advantage of the site’s nature of having an intimate relationship with the high speed railway station, small amount of start-up offices and small-sized retails were added to the program to be the game changer. Now the building has turned into a hybrid, rather than a mono-functional warehouse. Those new elements had given us a chance to transform the stereotype of warehouse design, which is always considered as a massive box without any contribution of publicity.
