TIPC is proud to announce its Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal is the recipient of the Taiwan Intelligent Building Association’s 2024 TIBA Gold Award for Design. This important recognition further confirms the strong accomplishments TIPC continues to make in the realm of smart and sustainable design.
The design and implementation of the Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal (KPTC) were executed in line with smart design principles. In addition to applying for EEWH green building “silver” certification, the terminal project also applied for intelligent building (IB) silver certification, based on its deep integration of intelligent-building concepts, implementation of an IB management platform, and utilization of assistive modules in the four key areas of building management, smart-microgrids, property management, and environmental control. Advances built into the KPCT facilitate the collection, analysis, and application of data from all terminal systems for highly accurate, advance decision-making and alert purposes. The smart elements woven into the KPCT have greatly boosted operation and management efficiencies while providing a safe and comfortable environment for both employees and visitors.
The terminal complex can efficiently handle two 225,000GT-class cruise ships concurrently, with 10 boarding ramps and immigration stations on mobile boarding bridges allowing the terminal to flexibly handle cruise liners of most any type and size. Also, automated E-gate accessibility further enhances the speed and efficiency of immigration processing procedures, allowing the terminal to process around 3,500 passengers / hour for port-of-call visits and 2,100 passengers / hour for homeport cruises. The third-floor Rhythm of the Sea Plaza offers city residents and visitors an ideal venue for sea views and leisure and to take in the port’s dreamy harbor scenery while linking the terminal seamlessly into the overall Asia New Bay Area experience, which also includes the Great Harbor Bridge, Kaohsiung Music Center, and Kaohsiung Exhibition Center.
The single-unit, 3-dimensional metal curtain wall cladding the exterior of the KPCT is the largest in the country. Also, the unique design of the curtain wall incorporates several thousand sets of differently cut glass panels. During construction, to limit the amount of time spent doing hazardous high-altitude work while keeping the project on schedule and on quality, most sections of the curtain wall were preassembled at the contractor’s offsite manufacturing facility and then carefully fit into place on the project site. For ease of curtain wall installation, structural steel posts were encoded with calibration information for their associated wall sections. These and other preparations greatly increased the accuracy and speed of assembly, with the finished curtain wall truly giving the building a dynamic aesthetic pleasantly evocative of rolling ocean waves. Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal now holds multiple major award recognitions, including the Public Construction Commission’s Golden Quality Award in 2023, and has successfully created a stunning new landmark celebrating Kaohsiung as southern Taiwan’s ocean gateway.
