Pingtung County Government and C.M.Chao Is Honored with the Golden A' Design Award for King Boat Cultural Museum in Architecture, Building and Structure Design

Pingtung County Government and C.M.Chao honored for architecture, building and structure design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 28, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ King Boat Cultural Museum by Pingtung County Government and C.M.Chao, designed for C.M.Chao. Architect & Planners, has been granted the Golden A' Design Award in the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The Golden A' Design Award Explained

The Gold A' Design Award is granted to designs that demonstrate a high level of innovation and a significant impact on their intended audience. Recognized as a major achievement by the A' Design Awards, these designs are characterized by their visionary approach and the exceptional skill of their creators. Winners of the Gold A' Design Award are noted for their ability to push the envelope in art, science, design, and technology, delivering solutions that not only meet but exceed expectations. These designs serve as benchmarks for excellence, encouraging further innovation and inspiring future generations of designers.

About King Boat Cultural Museum

King Boat is a cultural museum dedicated to the King Boat Ceremony, located in Donggang, Taiwan. The five-story building has a white facade set above a wave-like base that recalls the sea. The facade is clad in glass fiber reinforced concrete, chosen for its texture and its resistance to salt and humidity. Folded lines and recessed entries lead to a central atrium lined with expanded aluminum mesh, which filters light and sound. A full-size King Boat replica is displayed under natural light, and a rooftop deck offers views of the harbor.

About Pingtung County Government and C.M.Chao

C. M. Chao currently has 60 colleagues, including the Kaohsiung office, the Tainan branch, and the Taichung branch. We are good at transforming landscape into design. We regard design as a process of environmental creation and find new ideas through this process. The value of space, and I believe that architectural creation must be connected with the land and life, so that space can move people.

Award Record

Pingtung County Government and C.M.Chao is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.

About the A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award

The A' Architecture Design Award is an international architectural design competition recognizing good architectural designs by best architects worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to architectural design studios, building contractors, structural engineering firms and architecture and design consultants from all countries. Entries typically include skyscrapers, museums, residential buildings, commercial complexes, educational institutions and religious structures. Awarded architectural projects are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/architecture

About A' Design Award & Competition

A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/174503
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/174503
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!174503
Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/370826

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: King Boat Cultural Museum
Function: Cultural Museum
Category: Architecture, Building and Structure Design
Discipline: Spatial Design
Industry: Architecture
Colors: Light Slate Gray, Dark Gray, Light Steel Blue, Light Gray and Cornflower Blue
Images: 5
Client: C.M.Chao. Architect & Planners

The Recognition

Laureate: Pingtung County Government and C.M.Chao
Country: Taiwan (China)
Recognition: Golden A' Design Award
Edition: 2025 - 2026
Design ID: #174503

Credits

Team: Pingtung County Government, C.M.Chao. Architect & Planners
Image Credits: C.M.Chao. Architect & Planners

Design Details

Unique Properties: The building's form is inspired by a traditional king boat, with a five-story white facade atop a wave-like base symbolizing the sea. Folded lines and recessed entries mimic ocean swells, leading to a central atrium with aluminum mesh panels that ripple like waves. Inside, a 1:1 King Boat replica is displayed, bathed in natural light. The rooftop observatory offers views of Donggang Harbor. The museum's five exhibitions invite visitors to explore marine beliefs, parades, and boatbuilding rituals, celebrating Taiwanese folk religion.
Inspiration: The design begins with the traditional maritime faiths of Asia. Located in Donggang, the Pingtung King Boat Museum is Taiwan's first cultural center for the King Boat Ceremony. Inspired by the triennial ritual, the architecture transforms spiritual and oceanic imagery into a vessel of history and faith, linking local identity with future vision. Embracing the idea that 'life is culture, and culture is life,' the museum serves as a living space that bridges religion and daily life, sparking cultural renewal and community vitality.
Research: The Pingtung King Boat Museum, Taiwan's first dedicated to the King Boat Ceremony, reinterprets maritime beliefs as a 'living museum.' Its exterior mimics a king's boat riding waves, with flowing walls and dragon-eye openings that tell spiritual stories day and night. The centerpiece is a 1:1 King Boat replica suspended in the atrium, bathed in natural light. The design blends light, materials, and acoustics with sustainable features like natural ventilation. It’s a cultural, educational, and tourism hub, honoring tradition while inspiring future heritage.
Challenge: The biggest challenge was translating a deeply religious, ritual-based, and localized practice into an architectural language that modern audiences could understand and feel. The architect engaged in continuous dialogue with local elders and cultural scholars, extracting symbolic elements, such as the dragon's eye, wave lines, and procession routes, and converting them into spatial form and lighting gestures. The building had to be more than a container for culture; it had to be a bridge for cultural exchange, making that transformation the core design mission.
Realization and Technology: The facade is clad in glass fiber reinforced concrete, chosen for its textured finish, durability, and resistance to salinity and humidity, ideal for a coastal climate. Its surface reflects sunlight like shimmering waves, resonating with the harbor context. The atrium is enveloped by expanded aluminum mesh, offering both acoustic and light-filtering functions. A predominantly white color palette, paired with natural materials and glass windows, allows natural light to interact with surfaces, emphasizing the building's temporal and spiritual dimensions.
Operation and Interaction: By transforming traditional culture into a modern space, the museum becomes a hub for education, community, and tourism. It welcomed over 200,000 visitors in its first month, becoming a Donggang landmark. Beyond exhibits, it preserves oral history, teaches traditional crafts, and trains festival guides, making culture tangible and engaging. More than design, it's a cultural movement, sparking heritage continuity and innovation rooted in place and tradition.
Project Duration and Location: The project finished in December 2024 in Taiwan.
Specifications: The five-story structure includes four levels of exhibition space arranged to follow the ceremonial procession of the King Boat Ceremony, with five permanent thematic galleries: Marine Beliefs, Divine Patrol, Regional Ceremonies, Sacred Boat Building, and The Donggang Festival. The third floor houses the museum's centerpiece 42-foot-long, 12-foot-wide King Boat replica, viewable from a 360-degree elevated viewing platform. The roof features a skylight and observation deck, reinforcing the building's vertical movement and layered storytelling.
Keywords: King Boat Culture, Donggang, Cultural Museum, Local Revitalization, King Boat Ceremony, Taiwanese Folk Ritual