Dutch architect MVRDV has created a design proposal for two towers in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, to be built over the city’s Central train station.
The Taipei Twin Towers project will be 337m and 280m tall, and will contain retail and office space, two cinemas, and two hotels.
The larger East Tower aims to attract "trendy travellers", according to MVRDV, whereas the West Tower focuses on a "luxury" demographic.
The façades of the towers will be clad in large "interactive media displays", much like the screens on buildings in New York’s Times Square, which could show sporting or cultural events and advertising.
MVRDV describes the scheme as a "vertical village", as private and public spaces intertwine over the bottom 20 floors of the towers.
At the foot of the development, a sunken plaza will house retail blocks, stacked to create public atriums at their centres, generating a natural ventilation system. Outside, lifts and walkways connect the terraces on top of the retail blocks and produce alternative routes into the shops.
MVRDV has designed two versions of an elevated walkway that will link the station and surrounding destinations, one that runs straight through the site, and another that runs close to the façades of the two buildings.
Winy Maas, MVRDV principal, said: "Arriving at Taipei Central Station is currently an anti-climax. The immediate area does not reveal the metropolitan charms and exciting quality that the Taiwanese metropolis has to offer.
"The Taipei Twin Towers will turn this area into the downtown that Taipei deserves, with its vibrant mixture of activities matched only by the vibrant collection of façade treatments on the stacked neighbourhood above."
MVRDV is working with CHY Architecture Urban Landscape, landscape designer Topotek 1, and consultants Envision Engineering, Arup, RWDI, and Mercury Fire Engineering Consulting.
Images courtesy of MVRDV
