ICC Tainan
International Convention Centre Tainan is a convention center in Gueiren District, Tainan, Taiwan. It hosted many major events for Tainan, including the 2023 National Games and the 2024 Taiwan Lantern Festival.
History
Before 2010, Tainan City Government originally planned to build Tainan Arena in the suburbs of southern Tainan. However, due to opposition regarding issues on traffic and safety, the project was suspended.After the merger between Tainan County and Tainan City in 2010, the Tainan City government expressed interest in constructing and operating its own convention center. They evaluated that this would have a greater economic benefit to the city than the previously proposed Tainan Arena.
At that time, there was only one convention center in Tainan, which was the Commercial Exhibition Center Tainan. This convention center was a joint venture between two private companies, Want Want China Time Media Group and Tainan Spinning Co. Ltd.
In August 2015, the Executive Yuan approved the construction of Greater Tainan Expo & Convention Center, with an initial budget of $2 billion NTD. It was later renamed to Greater Tainan Convention and Exhibition Center. The construction of the convention center started on 8 May 2018. The project was designed by King Shih Architects.
The construction was completed on 30 September 2021 and was renamed to ICC Tainan. The site was then handed over to the International Trade Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which was subsequently inaugurated on 21 April 2022. Following the inauguration, the Commercial Exhibition Center Tainan was closed down.
On 7 December 2023, ICC Tainan and four other regional convention centers in southeast Asia formed the Asia Venue Alliance, which is a strategic partnership that aims to foster collaboration and brand recognition. The other four convention centers are Ariyana Convention Centre Danang of Vietnam, Bali Nusa Dua Convention Centre of Indonesia and the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching and Setia SPICE Convention Centre of Malaysia.
Architecture
The convention center has a spacious entry plaza to its north, and a larger plaza to the east for outdoor events. The rectangular building includes a lobby adjoined to conference rooms of differing sizes. The building also includes an exhibition hall and an indoor parking/service area.The exterior of the building has a brick-like color scheme, which evokes Tainan's Fort Zeelandia and Fort Provintia and their brick walls. The inspiration taken from these ancient forts originally built by Dutch East India Company echoes with the era when Tainan once was the capital for international trade in Taiwan. The brick design then smoothly integrates with the interior, which has a modern, high-tech aesthetic.
The exhibition hall has a high ceiling design with lightweight, bow-shaped tension truss that spans 81 meters across the hall. The design represents the concept of "Kunsheng", a mythical creature that resembles a whale, and often mentioned in folklores of Tainan. The historic ties between "Kunsheng" and Tainan are significant, as several places in Tainan are named after it, such as Nankunshen and Qingkunshen.
Sustainability
The exhibition hall is the first building in Taiwan to use lightweight, bow-shaped tension truss for its roof. This design reduced the amount of steel used by 420 tons, which is 20 percent less than a traditional design. This effectively reduced the carbon emissions by 777 tons, which equates to the amount that 35,000 trees absorb every year.The high ceiling design of the exhibition hall also provides ample space near the ceiling for storing heat, hence allowing the space near the floor to remain cool. This then allows the air-conditioning system to target only up to 6 meters in height, reducing its electricity consumption by 35 percent.
Solar panels were installed on the roof of the exhibition hall and the conference building, with the 5,348 panels generating around 1.658 MWh of electricity. This equates to 30 percent of the electricity used by the convention center, or the electricity consumed by 1,318 homes.
The project also planted 308 trees, 1375 m2 of bushes and 8385 m2 of grass in the site of the convention center. These plants belongs to a wide range of species, 77 percent of which are species native to Tainan or Taiwan. In total, the plants provide a carbon storage of 7,060 tons.
The convention building has received ISO 20121 certification. It also received Silver Level of "Green Building Label" and "Intelligent Building Label", both were issued by the Taiwan Architecture & Building Center.
In 2024, the country's first "smart" streetlight, entirely powered by renewable energy, was installed in the plaza of the convention center. It is powered by solar energy and has a battery with a capacity of 40 kW. The "smart" streetlight also provides public Wi-Fi, air quality sensors, traffic monitoring devices and public transport trackers.
Public artworks
There are two public artworks in the North Plaza. They were created by Spanish artist Juanjo Novella in 2021, using laser-cut carbon steel. The two artworks are as follows:- Tainan Sea Gate — inspired by the coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean, the artwork is presented as a gate that invites visitors into the convention center. It also pays tribute to the maritime history of the city of Tainan.
- Nature Spreads — inspired by the Anping Tree House, a symbolic landmark of Tainan. The artwork depicts a lush forest but the outline of a face of a child can be seen within the artwork.
Awards
- 2019 FIABCI Taiwan Real Estate Excellence Award — Special Award for Best Planning and Design
- 2021 Tainan City Government Public Works Quality Award — Special Merit
- 2021 Public Works Gold Quality Award from Public Construction Commission
- 2022 Yuan Ye Awards for Tainan City Public Landscape
- 2023 Outstanding Engineering Award from Chinese Institute of Engineers
Facilities
Tayouan
Located on the third floor, it is the largest conference room in the convention center, with a capacity of 1,000 people.Tayouan is the Dutch translation of the name for the bay near modern-day Anping of Tainan, named by the first Dutch settlers. The name "Taiwan" was later derived from this word. This name was given to the largest conference room to symbolize the historical significance of Tainan as a trading hub.
Zeelandia
Located on the third floor, it is the second largest conference room in the convention center, with a capacity of 800 people.Zeelandia refers to the ship Zeelandia that Martinus Sonck used to sail to the Pescadores and Formosa. He was the commander who withdrew the Dutch forces from Pescadores to Formosa, and became the first governor of Dutch Formosa. He later constructed Fort Zeelandia, which was named after the ship, as a navigational landmark and to oversee maritime trade in Tainan.
Nusantaria
Located on first floor, it consists of five meeting rooms, each with a capacity of 100 people.Nusantaria refers to Nusantara, an Old Javanese term describing the islands outside of Java that were under the realm of the Majapahit Empire. This region became pivotal to international trade from the 17th century when the Dutch East Indies served as a trading hub between China, India, the Islamic world, and particularly Tainan of Dutch Formosa.
Orange
Located on the first floor, it consists of three meeting rooms, each with a capacity of 20 people.Orange is a reference to the Orange City in 1624, the original name of the Dutch settlement in Tainan before it was renamed to Fort Zeelandia when it finished construction. The name was derived from the Prince of Orange, which during that time was the title held by the stadtholder of all provinces of Dutch Republic, including Holland and Zeeland.
Supporting facilities
The convention center has an information center, a medical room, lockers, mobile charging stations, gender-neutral restrooms, parent-child restrooms, breastfeeding rooms and prayer rooms. For food and beverages, there is also a Starbucks mini-store, named ICC Tainan Cafe, and a 7-Eleven store located within the convention center. The convention center provides taxi booking service and wheelchair rental service.The convention center provides 550 parking space in the indoor parking area, and 464 scooter parking spaces in the outdoor parking area. In the indoor parking area, there are fast-charging stations for electric vehicles and parking spaces for wheelchair users and families. The indoor parking area is connected to the conference area with a skybridge, located on the third floor. The skybridge crosses through the main exhibition hall, giving visitors a view of the exhibition below.
Notable events
The National Games in Tainan 2023
The convention center was chosen to be the main venue for the National Games in Tainan 2023. The event was held from 21 October to 26 October 2023. The opening ceremony, the National Games banquet and the closing ceremony were all held in the convention center.2024 Taiwan Lantern Festival
The convention center was one of the two venues for the 2024 Taiwan Lantern Festival. It was held in the site of the convention center from 24 February to 10 March 2024.The festival showcased more than 300 art installations and light shows and 170 live performances. One of the art installations was Drop of Light created by Dutch artist Gijs van Bon, in collaboration with ASML and GLOW Eindhoven. The festival had attracted more than 15 million visitors from all across Taiwan and the world.
Alongside the festival, the 2024 Taiwan International Orchid Show and the 23rd World Orchid Conference was also held, with the convention center being one of its two exhibition areas. It was also held during the same period from 24 February to 10 March 2024. The event attracted more than 1,000 participants and 350,000 visitors from 62 countries to both exhibition areas.
As an opening show for the festival, the grand Taiwanese opera show 1624 was presented by the National Center for Traditional Arts to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Tainan. The show took place on 24 and 25 February 2024 at the convention center.