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The site of a former shopping mall in Tainan, Taiwan has been transformed into an urban lagoon by architectural studio MVRDV. Launched by the Urban Development Bureau of the Tainan municipal government, the completed Tainan Spring masterplan revitalizes a 'T-Axis' located to the east of the Tainan Canal, linking the China Town Mall property with a kilometre-long corridor of Haian Road.
Tainan's natural waterways have historically supported the city's marine and fishing industries, but a shift in the 1980s brought new commercial opportunities to the area. China Town Mall was constructed atop the old harbour adjacent to Tainan Canal in 1983. In more contemporary times, with the advent and popularity of online shopping, the mall had become a white elephant in the city.
Though the China Town Mall has now been demolished to accommodate this new urban park, its materials were recycled, and evidence of the shopping centre remains in elements of the public space. Its underground parking level has been converted into a sunken plaza defined by an urban pool, local vegetation and a shadowed arcade. Responding to the Taiwan climate, the pool's water level will rise and fall according to the rainy and dry seasons. In hot and humid weather, mist sprayers will help reduce the temperature.
Tainan Spring is populated by playgrounds, gathering places and a performance stage. Concrete columns remind users of the property's previous life, and provide future opportunities to turn these relics into retail kiosks and community amenities. A portion of the second basement level has also been exposed with a glass floor, further allowing users to understand the history of the site.
"This new way of preserving heritage meant that the site was not cleared and renewed in a tabula rasa approach–instead the foundations of the former mall stick out of the park and the lagoon like a contemporary Roman Forum, offering a visual marker of the historical decision to close a port in favour of a mall," says MVRDV.
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