PORTFOLIO: CONCEAL / SURFACE 228 National Memorial Park

By Judith Stilgenbauer

Competition Background eted public open space for Chiayi In January 2006 the Construction and City’s developing mixed-use Liutsuo Planning Agency of the Ministry of the neighborhood. Interior of announced an open international design competition for the Location “228 National Memorial Park,” a new Located in the Chia-Nan alluvial plain urban park in Chiayi City. The project in the southeast of Taiwan, the project is named for an incident that occurred site is one kilometer away from the on February 28, 1947, on the island of Tropic of Cancer which runs through Taiwan, under Chiang Kai-shek’s the southern portion of Chiayi City. Four Chinese . Known existing peripheral roadways surround as “228,” the event began with a con- the future memorial park, which mea- frontation between a black-market ciga- sures 265 meters by 230 meters. The rette vendor and government soldiers abutting properties, zoned for a mix of that led to widespread protests and residential and commercial uses, as mass killings throughout the country. well as some light industrial and edu- Until a few years ago, the events of 1947 cational facilities, are currently under were a taboo subject and details about development. On its west side the 228 the 228 incident have been kept secret. National Memorial Park is flanked by While the exact number and fate of agricultural land dominated by rice and many of its victims are a mystery, offi- flower fields. cial estimates of the massacre’s death toll range from 10,000 to 40,000. The Time Frame and Budget objectives of the design competition The contest results were announced on were to not only reveal the memories February 28, 2006, followed by an official and the historic significance of the 228 award ceremony and symposium, which incident but also to create a national took place on March 7 at the National monument to peace, freedom and jus- University of Technology. tice. In addition, the new urban park Project construction is scheduled The Memorial Viewing Room features a south fac- ing floor-to-ceiling view of the proliferating bamboo will become an important multi-fac- to start in Chiayi City in January 2007 filtering the intense tropical sunlight.

 FRAMEWORKS PUTTING NATURE TO WORK  after approximately one year of plan- 228 incident that lives on despite so ning and design. The new park and many years of concealment. In time, national memorial will open its doors to answers and lost stories will resurface. the public in December 2007. Taiwan’s federal government has allocated a Design Elements project budget of NTD 90 million (or As visitors arrive at the 228 National approximately $US 3.5 mill.) for the 6.1 Memorial Park, they gather on the mul- hectare park. tifunctional entrance plaza in the park’s southeast corner. Deciduous Zelkova Concept serrata trees form a spatial edge along The jury awarded first prize in the 228 the wide streets that flank the park on National Memorial Park design com- all four sides and provide shade for the petition to our three-person team, UC 228 Theme Plaza. Park users follow a Berkeley graduate students Shih-ting long gently sloping linear processional Wang, Calder Gillin and myself. Second path to the top of the earth sculpture, prize went to Ambi Architectural where a platform surrounds the Agency with their work “Vacant Memorial Wall five meters above street Memorial.” Hsu-Hua and Zhu Li level. A steel ramp leads from this Arch-Interior Design Company’s entry platform to the inside of the Bamboo “The Relationship Can’t Be Torn Apart Room guiding visitors through the By Any Great Power” received third canopy down into the underground prize. museum and the Memorial Viewing Growth and the inevitable revela- Room. For its entire length, this exhi- tion of historical truths are the central bition space features a south facing themes of our winning competition entry floor-to-ceiling view of the proliferating “CONCEAL / SURFACE.” My team and I bamboo filtering the intense tropical envisioned the new memorial park to be sunlight. The sunken Bamboo Room, very different from more conventional a courtyard that measures 106 meters monuments that often feature granite by 40 meters and is 10 meters high on walls with engraved victims’ names or the inside, is open to the sky. Small soldiers on pedestals. In our concept, individual bamboo shoots, planted park and memorial are inseparable. The on a regular grid at inauguration, metaphor of proliferating giant bamboo will proliferate, develop into a dense that will eventually surface above a interwoven network, and eventually memorial wall, situated on top of a large rise above the surrounding Memorial asymmetrical low-rise earth pyramid, Wall that once concealed the forest symbolizes the national memory of the inside. The proposed giant bamboo spe-

above: A steel ramp leads visitors through the canopy of bamboo and down into the Memorial Viewing Room. right: Small individual bamboo shoots, planted on a regular grid at inauguration, will proliferate, develop into a dense interwoven network, and eventually rise above the surrounding Memorial Wall that once concealed the forest inside.

 FRAMEWORKS right: Trees form a spatial edge along the wide streets that flank the park on all four sides and provide shade for the 228 Theme Plaza. below: The sunken Bamboo Room, a courtyard that measures 106 meters by 40 meters and is 10 meters high on the inside, is open to the sky.

cies Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel Outlook Judith Stilgenbauer is a German land- will form strong upright trunks that in For the permit and implementation scape architect and Assistant Professor Taiwan traditionally symbolize resil- phases of the 228 National Memorial in the Department of Landscape ience and honesty. On all four sides, Park project, my team will work with Architecture and Environmental thick frosted-glass panels contain the the Taipei based landscape architects Planning at the University of California, actual memorial space. This semi-trans- of Progressive Environmental Inc. and Berkeley. parent enclosure allows visitors on Chen Chien Chou Architect. Due to the the upper platform glimpses inside the historic sensitivity of the project, the bamboo chamber. In contrast, from the 228 National Memorial Park is highly surrounding streets and the 228 Theme politically charged. Even more than Plaza the Memorial Wall appears solid with other design competitions, our and dense. At night the Bamboo Room greatest challenge during the upcom- is illuminated and its glass walls glow, ing project phases and reviews will be visible from afar. The park’s pyramidal to react to as many constraints and earth sculpture allows unobstructed public concerns as possible while at the views of the distant Memorial Wall and, same time ensuring the consistency and in time, also of the robust bamboo can- simplicity of the original award winning opy towering over the built structure: scheme. FW a symbol of life and freedom.

PUTTING NATURE TO WORK