Friday, June 3, 2011

Case 5 京城凱悅

Have to say this is really an eye opener for me...
From the construction material to public facility to prices... I was amazed!
Since they don't let people take pictures, I also posted up the pictures they have on their brochure.

King's Group Grand Tower
34 Floors
122 Units / Each unit has 1-6 rooms
115-230 坪 (1坪= 3.3m2)/ 350-500 thousand NTD per 3.3m2

As for the model that we saw it was around 200坪
Estimate it cost 1 billion NTD + 35 million NTD interior design + 20 thousand maintenance fee every month...
Maintenance fee alone is more than enough for common people to rent a really nice apartment.
It is unbelievable that there are people possess this much money just to spend on apartments o.O

When I first walked in, I had no idea what kind of property I am standing on.
The lobby looked pretty normal to me. I could see granite everywhere, but I thought it was pretty common since Taiwanese people do like buildings with granite.
Actually this contruction company bought it's own granite mine in Brazile. Even the building exterior is built entirely with granite. According to the statistics, this project alone had used up to 2000 tons of granite... I really don't see the point...


Not until I saw the drive way and the parking space in the basement, I started to realise that this is not a normal project.
The drive way is decorated with small tiles into a mozaic painting.



The parking space in the basement is bright, spacious, with good ventilation.
There are oil paintings on the wall.
Since rich people usually have a driver, they even have a driver's waiting room if drivers want to rest while waiting for their boss.


And then the host took us to check out their facilities in the building.
Pool and spa is on the ground floor.
When you want to have spa of massage you can call for professionals.


There is a mini movie theater.
There is also a sky bar + 2 public guest dinning rooms on top floor, each with a kitchen unit.
When you want to have a banquet, you can call for chefs to make food at the spot. And there will always have a bartender to make you drink at the sky bar, but you have to pay for your own drink.

The floor above the sky bar is the roof top. Where you can see scenery of the whole city and river.
On the floor they planted some grass, and also layed some stone tiles.
What surprised me is that on these stone tiles, they have inserted tiny LED lights!!!
Since it was day time it was hard for me to take a picture of those lighted tiles.
But a night the LED nights would look brighter, it would feel like walking on milky way!!! I found this very cool :D


We had to take the elevator, there is TV screen in each elevator.
There was also an elevator lady who guided us.
Staffs serving in this property are certified by the British school, Starkey, on household management.

And then this is what it looks like in one of the finished units.
The company only sells empty units with kitchen and bath units, so each unit would look different depending on the interior design.
As for the kitchen and bath units, they use "bulthaup", "Villeroy& Boch", "KOHLER".
Same level as the Queen Elizabath and German prime minister...



Most rooms have large windows that you can look out to the city view.
As for the window glasses, they use Low-E industrial glasses, which eliminate up to 99.5% of UV ray / radiation/ noise polution. And is strong enough for 17 degrees of typhoon.

It's pretty much like living in an hotel, yet even better than a hotel.
Anyway... everything is all very over the top and a bit overwhelming for me.

Case 4 成功大學綠色魔法學校

Cheng-Gong University Campus
Magic School of Technology

School staff gave us a tour of the building and a talk about the green buildings and technology of today.
The magic school is actually an experimental project itself on green building.
The sidewalk that people were standing on is made of wasted tires. It looks and feel just like normal concrete tiles!

eco-pavement
Inserting plastic tubes and seal the top of the tube before pouring the cement.
When it is complete, take off the top seal so that the air and water can actually circulate underground. More effecient drainage and creat lifes underground.


長備炭 (Long-prepared carbon??? no idea what's called in English)
Bags of this black carbon was inserted under the wall panel.
This helps filter the air + absorb humidity + absort smell
When it reach it's full absorption capacity, it can be reused after expose under the sun.

The wheel which is connected to the solar panel is able to rotate the panel depending on the direction of the sun.


蛇紋石 (Serpentine)
We were told by the staff that this kind of rock is only found in Taiwan and Italy.
It is the most suitable rock to be used in building material in Taiwan.
- It heats up slowest under the sun
- mineral will release far infered which is beneficial for human bodies
- filter air and activate cells
It sounds like magic stone!

Roof top. You can see the lady bug on the leaf shape solar panel.

The structure between the machinery and the roof top helps eliminate noise polution and better drainage/ventilation.

Case 3 iLife

僑昱建設
108-185 坪
26 Floors with 95 Units

We didn't see the actual building itself. Since it was under construction. We just visited the show house in the reception centre.


In door patio

Bath units


Case 2 和鄉曲

富立建設(Fuly Construction)
14 Floors + 3 Basement Floor
99, 112, 123坪
78 residential units + 1 commercial unit
Apartment style
Here is the company website for details: http://www.fuly.com.tw/

Pool facility on the first door



Case 1 和坊築

富立建設(Fuly Construction) 44-74 坪 36戶
Town house style with 3 floors in each building.
Starting from 13.4 million NTD

We were welcomed at the reception.
Usually the reception centers are usually make with plywood...
Just when all of us crowded around the centre to take a group picture, the floor sanked in... it was a comical moment lol




Still under construction

Inside the show house



Patio outside the 3rd floor


I think the project is still kindda traditional and conservative, yet pretty practical for traditional Taiwanese families. The materials used are decent too.

Trip with the Taichung City Architecture Association

Thanks to my uncle I was able to join the trip to see some architectural projects.
This trip is mainly visiting projects in the south of Taiwan, in both 台南 and 高雄.
There are about 70 members who participated in this event.
Their background mainly: construction company, construction supplier, interior designer, garden designer.

Here are the 8 projects that we visited:
和坊築
和鄉曲
iLife
成功大學綠色魔法學校
京城凱悅
帝富麗
遠見御苑
棋琴十重奏

I was kindda glad that I was on the A bus not the B bus.
B bus leader was more serious, he asked people to share and talk about their reflection on the bus.
As for A bus, we were lucky, we watched lots movies on the bus :D
"人在囧途" and "新少林寺" were really good.

All lunch and dinner are banquet style.
Especially the dinner... the set up really look like a wedding banquest lol

At night we also stayed at a pretty nice hotel. There were department stores next to the hotel, but unfortunately it was too late when we arrived, so didn't have a chance to look around.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Amazing Fashion Show!

The lyric of the song fits the theme perfectly!
Virtual VS. Reality

Who is the man I see?
Where am I supposed to be?

Oh crystal ball, crystal ball,
Save us all, tell me life is beautiful
Mirror, mirror on the wall.

Lines ever more unclear
Not sure I'm even here
The more I look the more I think that I'm
Starting to disappear

(I don't know how to fix this... half of the video is cut off on my blog)