Though the coastal city of Tainan is Taiwan’s oldest urban enclave—and proud of it, says Hui-Hsin Liao, architect and project coordinator at MVRDV—its residents also appreciate the region’s modern relics. The Netherlands-based firm recently completed Tainan Spring, a sunken “urban lagoon” and outdoor complex that draws from the not-so-distant-past: it is built within the ruins of an abandoned shopping mall.
The origins of the site itself can be traced back hundreds of years. In the 17th century, the abutting Tainan Canal extended inland, and the area was home to a prominent shipping port. By the 1960s, a portion of the harbor was closed and, in 1983, developers built the multilevel China-Town Mall, which included retail, housing, and entertainment. The partially subterranean complex was once a popular destination for locals, but its novelty waned as it deteriorated and became crime infested. The site was neglected until five years ago, when the Urban Development Bureau of the Tainan City Government commissioned MVRDV—as the winners of an international landscape competition—to redesign the five-acre area as an outdoor plaza and transform a stretch of Haian Road, which runs perpendicular to it.
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