Image © Iwan Baan, courtesy of Taichung Art Museum
The long-awaited Taichung Green Museumbrary officially opened last weekend. The new cultural venue is the first in Taiwan to integrate a metropolitan art museum and central library.
Image © Iwan Baan, courtesy of Taichung Art Museum
Designed by SANAA, led by Pritzker Prize-winning laureates Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, along with Taiwan’s Ricky Liu & Associates + Planners, Taichung Green Museumbrary is home to the new Taichung Art Museum and the Taichung Public Library. In 2013, SANAA was named the winner of the Taichung City Cultural Center International Competition, which sought designs for a multipurpose cultural, artistic, and recreational facility.
Image © Iwan Baan, courtesy of Taichung Art Museum
The building is located within Taichung’s Central Park, spanning approximately 624,264 square feet. It is SANAA’s first public building in Taiwan and their largest cultural project to date. The venue dissolves traditional boundaries between museums and libraries, offering an open, inclusive environment where exhibitions and reading converge.
Image © Iwan Baan, courtesy of Taichung Art Museum
Image © Iwan Baan, courtesy of Taichung Art Museum
The structure comprises eight interconnected volumes of varying sizes. Its exterior features a dual layer-layer façade, including an inner layer of high-performance, low-emissivity glass and metal cladding and an outer layer of aluminium expanded metal mesh. This white veil gives the building a sense of lightness and transparency.
Image © Iwan Baan, courtesy of Taichung Art Museum
Image © Iwan Baan, courtesy of Taichung Art Museum
The building volume is lifted to allow the surrounding park’s breeze and natural light to infiltrate the enclosed spaces. The building is accessible from all directions through the presence of shaded plazas at the ground level. The project also features an outdoor rooftop garden, providing visitors with views of the surrounding park and the city skyline.
Image © Iwan Baan, courtesy of Taichung Art Museum
“We have always hoped to create an open building that many people can easily participate in,” said Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. “Whether it is the museum providing visual learning through art or the library offering education through literature, combining the two to create a new multi-faceted learning space is what we believe to be one of the main characteristics of this building. We have carefully considered how to gently link the two entities together to create a place that connects learning and communication for people.”
Image © Iwan Baan, courtesy of Taichung Art Museum
The Taichung Art Museum opened with the inaugural exhibition A Call of All Beings: See you tomorrow, same time, same place. The show features work by more than 70 artists from over 20 countries, weaving together a variety of perspectives and insights.
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