THE CUBE · Kaohsiung | QIU · Quality Innovation United

THE CUBE – commu(nica)ting vessels through interstellar corridors – embodies QIU’s extensive exploration of 2021 Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival main theme: Van Buren Supernova – A theme revolving around light, star constellations, new life, and hope. THE CUBE is to spark the imagination about Kaohsiung’s future while firmly linked to the city’s port heritage. The pavilion is the most ambitious structure and largest pavilion in more than a decade of the Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival.

THE CUBE is a pavilion consisting of a white, lightweight rectangle steel frame structure. It generates a hierarchy of spaces in which five container-like objects engage with uniquely by hanging, floating, and escaping.

The visitors are invited to explore the structure and the floating volumes freely. The dynamic lighting and materiality of the volumes offers the visitor a multi-dimensional interaction. Located in pier 9 in the regenerated art district of the city, this post-industrial setting has a perfect view to the Kaohsiung harbour. Various framed views can be discovered when looking through the volumes.

Due to the pandemic, containers are a scarce commodity, alternative materials were used to construct the pavilion. Lightweight translucent Polycarbonate panels retain the shape of the container, creating horizontal luminous volumes. They are guided by the interconnected lines of light – enabling visitors to explore the mobility of the unknown.

The pulsating translucent horizontal vessels evoke curiosity, and guide visitors into the centre of THE CUBE, while the pulsating rhythm of light and dark represents the pulse of life. The visitors are invited to enter a horizontal vessel to examine the ‘breathing organism of light’. They are perceived as silhouettes to the spectators on the outside and as such, they become performers of the art installation.

Through the hollow vertical container in the centre of the pavilion, a connection is made between the visitor and the sky. While gazing through the kaleidoscope-like interior, the sky offers infinite reflections of themselves. It explores a common theme between the container and the star, they are vessels that deliver tangibles and ideas.

THE CUBE’s design with accessible hung containers, slender structural frame (50mmx50mm square hollow section), and sheer overall dimensions (15m x15m x12m), was challenging due to its location – high typhoon and seismic risk.

To achieve a slender structural frame while safeguarding the original design composition of the structural frame module of 3m x 3m and strategically inserted 1m x 1m subframe – providing structural integrity to support the floating volumes – the square hollow section of the structure has subsequently been increased to 50mmx50mm. A change barely noticeable due to the scale of the pavilion. Below THE CUBE’s floating ground floor deck, the main frame has been anchored to steel H-beams – instead of the originally proposed footings below each vertical structural member – to achieve a solid foundation capable to withstand typhoons. Due to the tight overall programme, many of the design details evolved through the construction phase and on-site mock-ups.

Sustainability has been on the forefront of our design process; we minimised the weight of the structure by carefully selecting the right materials and the live load arrangement. All building materials, including the light fittings, of the pavilion will be recycled post exhibition.

‘The generous support from the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts as well as the enthusiasm and expertise of collaborators, contractors, and sponsors during the construction process have made this pavilion possible. We are proud of the high-quality finish of the pavilion.’
Quality Innovation United

THE CUBE kicked off the Taiwan Lantern Festival this year during which over a hundred thousand people visited the pavilion. QIU’s pulsating luminous containers appeared to be floating amongst the lines of light, together they transformed Kaohsiung Port’s industrial skyline.

THE CUBE - Video