Sun Moon Lake Administration office of Tourism Bureau, Norihiko Dan and Associates, world architecture news, architecture jobs

15/12/12 Nelson chhean, Touch? village

Hsiangshan attracted million of tourists every year, both local and international alike, bikers and sight seekers, it's one of the most beautiful place around the lake, on a fine day, the area is a full house, from all walk of life. But sadly by night it's a ghost town ( cemetery ), there was no light, I lived around the corner and often people ask the local,; why doesn't the government put up some light, so Hsiangshan can attracts tourists both during the day and by night, as a matter of a fact, the area surrounding the Sun Moon Lake is become a ghost town by night, and in my opinion, the should attracts tourists to the area during the day and night, Taiwan is very famous for its nightlife, and I am sure it will please million of tourists and which will bring money for the local businesses, and the government will benefit from taxes, one more thing I would like to mention is car park and parking regulation, there isn't enough car park to accommodate the number the tourists therefore people seem to car their car everywhere, which upset the local business and the tourists itself, and I am sure the government is doing something about that problem, this is only my personal opinion which does not represent any one or organization, thank you.

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15/12/12 Nelson chhean, Touch? village

I've posted some comment earlier about the surrounding area of the lake, and I had missed one most important thing which is " rubbish ", we are very short of rubbish bin along the walkway or bike path, we are all tourist ourself one way or another, and how many people will carry their rubbish with them, how people will do the right thing, as we have known " not many ", the more cleaners are supply ,the more people throw their rubbish everywhere, cos they believe someone will clean it, we need more public rubbish bins around the whole lake, and every so often rubbish trucks come along and empty them, less cleaners, less rubbish, and keep our country ( or the Sun Moon Lake ) beautiful.

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Norihiko Dan and Associates create impressive tourism bureau on Sun Moon Lake

This is one of the projects from an international competition held in Taiwan in 2003 for four representative sightseeing locations in Taiwan called the Landform Series. It is a project for an environment management bureau that houses a visitor centre in the Sun Moon Lake Hsiangshan area.

The site just touches the narrow inlet extending almost south-north at its northern tip, has a narrow opening facing the lake-view direction, and extends relatively deep inland along a road. Looking towards the lake, the lake surface looks like it is cutout in a V shape as mountain slopes close in from both sides. Thus, although the site is for the Sun Moon Lake Scenery management bureau, it doesn't have a 180° view of Sun Moon Lake as can be enjoyed from the windows and terraces of the hotels standing on a typically popular site.

In most cases with sites like this, the building is positioned on the lake side to secure the greatest view possible, and thus the inland side tends to become a kind of dead space. As the basic policy for the design, Norihiko Dan and Associates first aim was to propose a new model for a relationship between the building and its natural environment while preserving the surrounding scenery and keeping the inland area from becoming dead space.

The second second priority was to address the disadvantages of the site whose view of the Sun Moon Lake is not necessarily perfect, and to draw out and amplify the potential advantages. In this project, in order to emphasize a sense of horizontality to the architecture, the architects added more soil taken from construction for the foundation to the volume of the building conventionally required, and designed a composition in which the building on the lake side and a sloping mound on the inland side are in gradual and continuous transition. By adopting this composition they planned the design so that continuity is regained between the building and the landform to form an integrated garden rather than having the building sever the landform.

The two surfaces-the union of the lake and water basin surfaces, and the resonance of the building's greenery on the upper part with the surrounding undulating sea of trees-are connected via the tunnel-shaped diagonal path that cuts and penetrates through the interior of the building, and through the slopes carved into the building like mountain paths, to create a multi tiered landform.

This half-architectural and half-landform project is conceptualized as a stage setting to bring out and amplify a hidden dimension of the scenery and environment of Sun Moon Lake, and at the same time creates a new dialogue between the human being and nature that provides another new dimension to this area.

Norihiko Dan and Associates create impressive tourism bureau on Sun Moon Lake

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