open air theater – ‘ribbons’ in taichung, taiwan

japanese architect makoto sei watanabe was commissioned to design an open air theater for a city park in taichung, taiwan. the canopy consisted of backstage rooms and other new facilities for the existing outdoor theater.

in 2005, he did the spatial design for an exhibition of contemporary japanese art in the austrian city of graz. entitled ‘ribbon’, that project featured a ribbon weaving through space, rising and falling, at places becoming the wall of a booth and at places becoming a canopy to guide the visitors. for the theater project he approached the design concept from that direction.

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater ‘ribbons’

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater ‘ribbons’

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater ‘ribbons’

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater ‘ribbons’ – backstage

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater ‘ribbons’

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater ‘ribbons’

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater there were 3 versions explored in the design process.

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater version 1

version 1  –  the cut out shell the proposal was to take a closed curved surface and cut it out with another curved surface, as to leave a shape that fulfilled the minimum requirements of a shell, however the city wanted a design that could be seen easily from the street.

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater version 2

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater version 2

version 2 – ribbon/form guided by paths the second proposal was to stretch a surface between two independently varying paths. the result was a ribbon that danced along the two paths, changing its width and height, crossing itself and twisting to open and close and form an overhead canopy. due to limitations related to structural design in taiwan and questions of cost.

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater version 3 – final design

version 3 – ribbons/swaying on the waves the third proposal, which was chosen for construction, is entitled ‘ribbons’. it consists of five wavelike ribbons in a parallel configuration.

each of the ribbons is a simple 3D curved surface with the addition of a small amount of twist and a slight displacement in phase. but the accumulation of small differences as the wave forms are fitted to each other results in a surprisingly large amount of variation.

although no special computer program was developed for this project, the principle is consistent with the basic principle of algorithmic design, namely that simple operations applied to a limited number of items produce complex results.

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater swaying on the waves rendering

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater swaying on the waves rendering

makoto sei watanabe: ribbons open air theater the final design