Dalong Mix-Use Complex by Q-LAB
Name of Company or Individual: Q-LAB
Country: Taiwan
Website: http://www.qlabarchitects.com/
Project Name: Dalong Mix-Use Complex
Project Completion Date: 12/13/2019
Project Completed City: Taipei
Architecture Division: Mixed-Use
Dalong Mix-Use Complex was originally built in 1985, found with contaminated building materials in 1996 and lastly demolished in 2015 for the concern of public health and safety.
Q-LAB won a nation-wide competition in 2015 to re-design the new Dalong Mix-Use Complex. The program calls for a return of the traditional market on the ground level, municipal office on mid floors and 96 social housing units on top.
The challenge of designing such a complex was to create three sets of circulation which work hand in hand harmonically with their distinctive functions while avoiding interference on their daily operation. Two back-to-back center cores were established from the outset of design to create two completely separate entrances for municipal office on mid-levels and social housing on top floors. This arrangement frees up most of the space on the ground level for the traditional market to operate both interiorly and exteriorly. The “8-shape” floor plan naturally creates two zones with one continuous path which provides visitors with a smooth transition from either raw food to cooked food or vice versa. Moreover, a coherent colour identity was given to the entire traditional market with the use of ancient green throughout the interior space in reference to the Confucius Temple nearby. The visual language including signage and stalls were uniformly integrated for the first time in the history of Taiwan.
As for the municipal office taking up the 2nd to the 5th floor, a special attention was given to the design of its lift lobbies to further differentiate the occupation of its various bureaucratic departments. In response to the history of the site where the area was named as “Dalong” meaning “Dragon” indirect translation, traditional material such as brick was designed and implemented in a parametric method to visually create a three-dimensional dragon as the main display once visitors arrive at the 2nd-floor lobby. Similar approaches were taken from the 3rd floor to the 5th floor respectively.
The social housing starts from the 6th floor and ends on the 13th floor were designed with a double “cruciform” floor plan which rests on the plinth of the bureaucratic office and traditional market. The layout allows for maximum sunlight and natural ventilation at the same time for a total of 6 units per floor. Both the lift lobbies and the corridors were filled with an abundance of natural light and breeze throughout the seasons for the conservation of energy and means of sustainability.
The stacking of cruciform social housing on top of the bureaucratic office naturally creates six pockets of sky garden on the 5th floor where trees and benches were designed to encourage social engagement and recreational opportunity.
Dalong Mix-Use Complex is the first rebuilding effort in the history of the traditional market in Taiwan to modernize its spatial quality as well as encouraging a nation-wide movement in urban regeneration.