Star Light

The new Pop centre in Taipei is a city in itself, designed to transcend its visitors into a total escapism of pop. The enclosure makes the experience inside strong and focused and gives the structure’s different districts a framework of function and identity. The wall will act as a noise barrier as well as a very straight forward tool of communication.

The tower in its center projects light to the different parts of the town as stage lights or to enhance the setting. Every district uses the effect from the tower in some aspect and is consequently designed according to the angles of light.

The lights can make the whole building expand dramatically in appearance, from rather low key from a distance into a spectacular body of light; forming a unique landmark for this developing part of the city.
The projections also works in a smaller scale, such as high precision laser to light up a visiting Tina Turner's Martini for example.


Aerial perspective

Aerial perspective of the eastern parts of the building

Section

THE DISTRICTS;

The Star District hosts the office part with rehearsal studios.
As an extra feature we also added a guest star palace.
The rehearsal studios and office space is located in a flexible and large space that are easy to change after specific needs. All office space and rehearsal studios can be reached internally through the surrounding walls. The streets and the small squares in these blocks will be an important area for intermingling for the guest artist and entourage with the local artists and office personnel working in the building.

The star palace features a hotel for the artist’s entourage on the first three levels. The upper level is a penthouse suite for the guest artist with an exclusive pool overlooking the whole complex and formed as a glass bowl that can be illuminated by the tower.

Star District with the star pool

Star District

The outdoor arena is a plane surface surrounded by walls with three levels of balconies on each side. Hovering over the space is a rig with smoke machines that allows it to be disguised as a cloud. The cloud rig is mounted on a rail with a light and sound system that can support the scene anywhere on the arena area either as a roof for the artist or as a separate feature emphasizing the show. When not used for shows the arena can serve as a big square with great scenographic opportunities for markets, car shows, parties etcetera.

The cloud and the outdoor arena

The live houses are located in the centre of the building, connected both to the outdoor arena and the commercial district. The live houses have different scales and characters for different performances such as a hovering outdoor live house as well as small and big scale indoor live houses. All live houses, except the smallest ones, have holes punctuating the roofs for the projections from the tower to reach the scenes. In between the live houses is a tranquil park for recreation with features like headphones to just relax for a moment while visiting the complex and a projection wall for the tower to display music videos or other moving media. The live houses are placed so they can be reached separately from outside the complex for easy controlled night activities.

Live House landscape

Inside a livehouse with stage projection

The commercial district consists of the central square with the tower, the hall of fame and a great cluster of bars and shops that continues on the sloping roof terrace of the main auditorium. The main square is an important entry point to the complex with a close access to all public events.
In the middle of the square lies the tower which is a clearly visible landmark and controls the light ambiance for the whole complex.

The Hall of Fame is easily accessed for the public via the main square and hosts a great collection of Pop memorabilia as well as a permanent exhibition of the supreme of pop.

The shops and bars are relatively small units tweaked towards the tower to individually light up a preferred interior vibe via the glass roofs. The many small streets and squares makes for a vibrant atmosphere, perfect for a pre-drink before a concert or an evening stroll.

From the tower

Shop district

Shop district with projections

The main hall provides a unique concert experience; large punctuations in the roof for the tower projections lights up the whole scene as well as a large part of the hall.

The sloping spectator area is made out of glass beams which can transmit light out on the auditorium plaza, creating an epic foyer for the arriving crowds. The auditorium foyer/square is protected from rain by the large overhang and acts as a connection hub for pedestrians; interlinking various footbridges and takes the visitors to the desired floor level.

The roof on the auditorium becomes a sloping terrace down to the commercial district with views over the whole complex.

Main auditorium

Siteplan

Plans

Thanks to Andres Morelli for some of the 3D renderings

Power Up

Here comes an additional text with images to the video posted under the "Collection" post earlier this month;

Visiondivision got the comission to give 8 power plants in gothenburg a new identity.We gave them a collection of projects, ranging from a small scale to pharaoic wonders.

The biggest part of the commissions was to renovate one of the city’s major power plants; Sävenäs. The plant is today a collage of different non good looking building parts. Our sketches vary from low-cost solutions with a big effect, to a more iconic brave architecture.

The first sketch was to paint the whole thing blue, It would merge the different building parts into one major complex mass. The blue paint also fades from matt at the lower parts of the building to glossy in its highest parts.

At night different projections forms a moving story on how the power plant is functioning, following the story the viewer will see how wood is turned into energy and then see the waste products going up the chimney as water vapour.

To manifest that the smoke is actually just water, we propose to project dolphins and other sea animals in it. Projecting in the smoke also gives a big visual effect and can be seen from miles around.

We also had to do a more brave proposal, after all we are visiondivision. So we made a true iconic wonder; a digital volcano. The construction is rather simple; a net is draped over the whole building with LED-light, starting at the 100 m high chimney. The LED-device is also a solar cell, making the system energy-independent. Each one of the devices can change color and therefor can the volcano take any visual expression.

The power plant has a great exposure potential due to its strategic location next to the highway and the railway leading in and out of Gothenburg.Advertisment, concerts or maybe digital art? The options are endless and the company will have a media icon unseened of in this part of the world.

Sävenäs power plant has many employees that now will experience the net as a big roofwith a ever-changing repertoire of visual delights.

Plan: volcano net

The second part of the commission was to renovate seven smaller power plants in the suburbs of Gothenburg. Visiondivision made a list of improvements that would be cheap, quick and function separately from each other. The tree major design concepts were to clean up the surrounding areas of the plants, design more visible signs and to surprise visitors by adding something new to the context.

To add a new and more positive design to the plants we decided to upgrade the building parts with the most negative associations; the surrounding fences. By filling the fences with Plexiglass we created a thematic image that can be seen from a distance.Parts of the image could also be projected at the facades by putting headlamps in front of them.

Drawing : Plexiglass filled fence

Collection

2008-08-28

visiondivision got the commission to visually refine the appearance of eight power plants on the west coast of Sweden. The vd crew decided to make a collection of different low-cost proposals with a big visual effect. We broadcast a part of this collection so that you fans out there can get a glimpse of the ongoing process to build a brave new world.