Emerging from a basement carpark into a cavernous, stark-white hall where the morning sunlight pours in through an upper-floor window, I can scarcely believe my eyes. Could this really be a cruise terminal? Harvard-trained architect Hou Ching-Mou, my unofficial guide for the day, looks up to the sculptural ceiling with a satisfied smile. “You know, it’s also my first time coming inside — this took 10 years to build.” Inaugurated just days before our visit, the sinuous Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal culminates in a tower intended to house the Taiwan International Ports Corporation, or TIPC. Tumbling waves may have been the primary source of inspiration for New York architecture firm Reiser + Umemoto, but with its silvery cladding and thin window strips, the design more closely resembles a humpback whale breaching the ocean’s surface. It’s emblematic of the remarkable transformation now underway in this overlooked metropolis of 2.8 million on the southwest coast of Taiwan.
“In my teenage years, there was no real bar culture in Kaohsiung and fine dining was rare. People went to department stores in their leisure time; they were starting to get in touch with the cultures of different countries through daily consumption.” Yaman Shao, the young CEO of Alien Art, tells me this a few hours later at her company’s privately funded museum. I learn that Alien Art belongs to the local Yuimom Group, which operates serviced apartments, high-end restaurants, and the Silks Club hotel, whose art collection includes a kinetic sculpture by Art + Com — the same studio behind Petalclouds in Terminal 4 of Singapore Changi Airport.
Herself a curator and contemporary artist, Shao returned to her hometown after pursuing
