A harbor passenger service center is a place of passage, meeting, and crossing of paths for all types of people; travelers, their families, business people, tourists and more, either on their way to their next destination or welcomed upon arrival. People connect, intersect, melt, wait, and go. As a transfer hub, it is a sort of a machine organized by a strict and rigorous process to irrigate people. It is a place of direct connectivity, both individual and collective, with existential dimensions connecting flux with life trajectories.

 

The project is inscribed in the view of crossing paths as well as of anchoring to the territory of the Kinmen Island. With the undulating and fluid line of the red roof passing over the facades, the exterior design of the project aims to create an iconic contemporary national maritime gateway. Moreover, it reinter­prets some of the most characteristics architectural elements of Kinmen traditional architecture; the red roof ridge, the red color tiles, and nonlinear volumes. At the same time, the continuous red line expresses a serene and peaceful beauty in the middle of the intense movement of the travelling crowd.

 

The passenger service center is a kind of an oasis, a place to take a break. It is both an intensely animated place as a well as a place where time is suspended. In between land and the sea, the passage through the interior pathways provides views for travelers on both sides. The terminal faces both landscape and seascape, opening out towards both. The trajectory through the terminal is constantly fluid and forward moving, while departures and arrivals remain separate.

 

A large sidewalk covered by an arcade runs along the façade of the building, which is animated with shops and commercial facilities. From the sidewalk, the public can reach the general lobby and its commerce as well as the roof and its garden, which is connected to the restaurants and cafes on the interior balconies of the service center. There is also access to the panoramic view from the belvedere of the lounge bar. This ensures the continuity of the waterfront activity without using the front sea façade where the port activity creates dangerous and unsafe places for the general public and provides an attractive view of the ballet of the ferries coming and going, while offering families a visual link to their relatives as they travel.