Listen people. I’ll be the first admit that I don’t know what I’m doing. But what I do know, is that I do do something. Every day I get up and I do something. Persevere (god only knows why- well, consult philosophy here).
The trip to Kaohsiung resulted from the need to take the high speed rail somewhere on this visit. With so little time on this visit- heavy jet lag at play- where would we go? I didn’t want to do it but I made myself do the research, make a choice. I hope my recent similar “get off your ass” efforts – now magically resulting in fulfilling my goal to visit South America (Saõ Paolo specifically alongside a Tomorrowland festival- another goal to boot), will pay as many dividends as this trip to Kaohsiung did.
Can we look at the same place with new eyes? Taiwan is home to me, like a warm blanket. Just this week I was in a research meeting where the neuropsychologist was saying that it’s not about the experience itself, but about how you reflect on it that determines the impact (in some cases trauma) on the wellbeing of your life. The older I get, the more I shift to these feelings of comfort and love from my time spent there as a child- it is not without some miracle that this has happened.
From what I can remember, I have never been to Kaohsiung but with such a terrible memory, I would believe others. This being, however, my most recent memory- I want to remember to return and stay a couple days.
I don’t even think this place was on our initial itinerary (controlled by my parents- I gave up). They added on Weiwuying as an addition having already taken the same itinerary a few days before. Still a little motion sick from the high speed train- we pile into a van and I try to concentrate on this new city – being as actively present to anything that might spark my curiosity.
Laughably – I realize this is another harbor trade city. Riding on the coat tails of the visit to Hamburg, here’s another building that calls to the maritime. But more importantly there’s this. In the innovative generative documentary Eno, which will course through upcoming posts, the algorithm presents Eno saying: “Art is about feelings… is that too small an ambition- is that what we want to understand how the world of feelings works?” For me, music is an art and from this building to the Taipei Performing Arts Center to the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie which I visited the last couple of months- all of these recent constructions (investments really) into large complexes for many people to gather together- is this an expression of how we can and want to better understand ourselves together, not apart?
Architecturally, I was delighted to see these model sections of the building. Because we did not have tickets for the any of the performing arts spaces, I had no idea the extent of just how many spaces there were. It takes one to know one and these models (forget even the engineering in the building itself) took some planning and execution just on their own. It’s wonderful to see how much vertical space is provided as that scale is needed I think to help humans reflect beyond themselves and to implicitly tune into a part of themselves that without the context would be much more difficult.
I’ll note two last items. First, to highlight the floor plans- in particular about this one is how big it is. The height of it certainly taller than myself. This brought me a great deal of delight- nothing shows off the hard work involved in architecture than a good 2D representation and explanation of a 3D space. Second, there is a hallway with a history of Weiwuying and how it came about- another historical site converted into something healing and transformative. We can triumph in the face of adversity.
Address: No. 1號, Sanduo 1st Rd, Fengshan District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 830
Website: ArchDaily write-up
ofallthespaces 