An exclusive new story on KPF’s newly completed TCC DAKA Renewable Resource Recycling Center in Taiwan showcases how the design transforms an industrial incineration plant into a spiraling, terraced cultural landmark that harmonizes industrial infrastructure with public engagement and environmental innovation.
“The facility integrates cement production and waste incineration into a harmonious ecosystem that advances both environmental stewardship and manufacturing and architectural innovation,” KPF Principal Bruce Fisher tells Dezeen. The exclusive piece highlights the project’s striking architectural response to its coastal site, where KPF wrapped the facility’s industrial processes within a sinuous concrete and steel volume situated between the sea and a nearby mountain range. The building’s fluid, tiered form creates a spiral of landscape connecting nine floors of mixed-use programming—including a botanical garden, exhibition spaces, and a café—drawing inspiration from the existing cement manufacturing complex’s industrial structures. KPF Director Bob Graustein explains how “the facility’s design was conceived to possess strong formal characteristics that draw inspiration from the striking industrial structures on-site.” The piece also showcases the lower levels’ Ultra High-Performing Concrete (UHPC) panels, embossed with geometric patterns informed by local indigenous craft traditions, and perforated aluminum screens that draw natural light into the upper exhibition spaces.
Dezeen‘s exclusive coverage emphasizes how the TCC DAKA RRRC facility operates as a living laboratory for sustainable manufacturing, where excess heat from neighboring cement kilns powers the waste incineration process and gasified output is redirected back to fuel cement production. The article features photography by Justin Szeremeta that captures the facility’s viewing windows, which allow visitors to witness these industrial processes firsthand, alongside the wide external staircase that invites the public to explore the terraced landscape.
