Tainan Spring

Tainan Spring transforms a former shopping-mall basement into a public pool and plaza, retaining fragments that make the site’s change legible.

The project, in context

Tainan Spring changes the use of a site by changing what counts as its ground. MVRDV’s project, completed in 2020 with local collaborators, transforms the former China Town Mall’s underground parking level into a sunken public plaza and pool. Remnants of the concrete structure remain within the new landscape. The result is neither an intact converted mall nor a completely cleared park: it is a public space whose previous organisation can still be read.

The scheme forms part of a wider landscape plan that includes a stretch of Haian Road and connections toward the Tainan Canal. MVRDV describes new pathways, reduced traffic and planting as parts of the same commission. This context matters because a sunken plaza can become an isolated destination if its relationship with surrounding streets is weak. Here, the architectural argument extends beyond the pool to the routes by which people encounter it.

Our reading is that the retained structural fragments give the open space a useful grain. Columns and partial frames provide reference points within an area that might otherwise be experienced as one undifferentiated basin. They also make the depth of the former building visible. The transition from enclosed commerce to civic landscape can be understood through material evidence, rather than explained only by a plaque or a name.

The pool introduces a second kind of change. The architect describes a water level designed to respond to seasonal conditions, together with misting intended to improve comfort in hot weather. These are design intentions, not proof of present-day cooling performance or water efficiency. Evaluating the system would require information on water treatment, replenishment, operating schedules, maintenance and the experience of people using the space.

Planting likewise has a temporal dimension. MVRDV’s completion announcement explicitly anticipated several years of growth before the landscape reached its intended character. A project study should therefore distinguish the design at opening from later vegetation, rather than assume a rendering or early photograph represents a stable final state. In architectural terms, planting can change the balance of enclosure and openness long after the concrete work is finished.

Tainan Spring’s wider lesson concerns how cities treat structures whose original commercial purpose has weakened. Removing parts of a building can create a new civic resource while preserving enough evidence to explain the site’s history. The quality of that resource depends on accessible routes, durable surfaces and sustained management as much as on the memorable image of water among columns. Reuse becomes a question of public ground, not only a new tenant for an old shell.

Published from supplied source-based editorial research on 1 October 2026; this publication did not add an independent primary-source recheck. The English study is complete; Chinese text is a summary. No images or image rights are supplied. MVRDV project page and announcement list some consultant roles differently; credit the consistently identified lead, local architect and urban designers. Publication uses completion-year framing, not unverified current operating conditions.

What to look for

1. 01

   A former underground parking level becomes a sunken civic landscape with retained columns and structural fragments.

2. 02

   Connections to Haian Road and the Tainan Canal make the plaza part of a larger network of public ground.

3. 03

   Seasonal water levels, misting and gradual plant growth are design intentions; current performance depends on operation and maintenance.