Chiung-Ting Chiu

Kaohsiung is an industrial metropolis in the south of Taiwan, where more than one third of its population works for heavy industries. In 2014, a catastrophic gas explosion in the centre of the city resulted in hundreds of injuries and 32 fatalities. This incident ignited the process of moving the city’s oil refineries to a land of a coastal area called Dalinpu, home to some 20,000 people that now need to be relocated. In this context, the project is a critique of the urban politics of Kaohsiung and of the ways in which previous relocations of coastal villages took place. Proposing an alternative strategy for the resettlement of Dalinpu the design aims to put the rights of inhabitants as well as their modes of living at forefront of urban and architectural debates.