A station of taste and style

This article was published by the Taiwan Review on September 1, 2007. It features the Hsinchu high-speed railway station, one of 8 currently open to the public. Another 4 are still under construction. These stations, mostly custom-built for the new railway, combine functionality with high aesthetic standards.

While these new high-speed railway stations share characteristics such as brightness, cleanliness, spaciousness, good signage and well-defined routes, their individual designs also showcase respective local characteristics. For example, Hsinchu Station is widely acknowledged as a fine piece of modern architecture. Its design uses leitmotifs from the local Hakka culture, the high-tech industry of the nearby science park, and local environmental factors such as Hsinchu's high winds and crisp daylight.

The exterior of the station reminds the viewer of the intricate lines of a semiconductor chip. The interior uses glass walls to gain the maximum of natural light. The station also has a parallelogram-shaped arched roof that covers the rail tracks and the oval station concourse, which is specifically designed to lead air currents upwards and thus reduce the wind bluster on pedestrians in the western plaza. It is also a typical design feature of a traditional Hakka house, and helps reduce the size of the glass walls and consequently the costs of construction and running air-conditioning.

The design of Hsinchu Station was invited to participate in the Venice Biennale and the Architecture Biennale Rotterdam. This was the first time Taiwanese architecture made a showing at these highly acclaimed international exhibitions.

According to Artech Inc., which designed Hsinchu Station, the station was designed to become a public building that could make Taiwanese proud and stimulate people's hearts. The design concept aimed to merge the high-tech image of the high-speed railway along with Hsinchu's cultural and industrial characteristics, in order to create a space with both local features and international style.

More importantly, in the process of building the station, Artech's designers challenged the standard of Taiwan's public infrastructure by using talent from around the world in the fields of lighting, electromechanical systems and railway station consultancy.

According to Artech, stations are places of transit, and travelers in stations often share a common sense of being neither friendly nor aloof. However, Hsinchu Station was designed to convey a sense of security, of holding people. In other words, the station was designed to be one of the 21st century. It should not be seen as merely a transportation facility. Instead, it should be seen as a gateway to the city it serves, as well as a forum for citizens. The designers expect Hsinchu Station to not only serve train passengers, but also to create a comfortable public space for the region. The station is expected to set a new milestone for Taiwan's public works.