First look at Taichung Art Museum by SANAA

 

SANAA unveils Taichung Art Museum, part of the newly completed Taichung Green Museumbrary, set to open on December 13th, 2025. Located in Taiwan’s second-largest city, the project integrates the city’s central library with a metropolitan art museum, establishing a combined cultural facility that presents a new institutional model.

 

The Taichung Green Museumbrary sits on the northern edge of Central Park, a 67-hectare green space within the 254-hectare Shuinan Trade and Economic Park, formerly a military airport decommissioned in 2004. Positioned at the heart of this redevelopment area, the project has been described as Taiwan’s most significant cultural initiative of 2025. SANAA’s design follows the guiding idea of creating ‘a library in a park and an art museum in a forest.’ The building is lifted above ground level, allowing natural light and park breezes to move freely through shaded plazas that provide open, permeable access from all sides.

SANAA unveils taichung art museum in taiwan with translucent dual-layer metal facade
all images by YHLAA – Yi Hsien Lee

 

 

An Open Plan Connecting Culture and Nature

 

The plan dissolves traditional divisions between museum and library spaces within an open and inclusive interior. Reading areas and exhibition zones are designed to overlap, encouraging cross-programming and interaction. The library will house over one million physical and digital resources. On the rooftop, the design team at SANAA organizes an outdoor garden that offers views of Central Park and the Taichung skyline. Conceived as both a public landscape and a cultural extension of the building, the rooftop enhances the continuity between built and natural environments.

 

The dual-layer facade combines high-performance glass or metal cladding with an outer layer of aluminum expanded metal mesh. This silvery veil produces a sense of transparency while improving environmental performance. The facade and lifted volume emphasize lightness, openness, and integration with the surrounding park. At ground level, shaded plazas act as public thresholds where the city meets the museum and library.

SANAA unveils taichung art museum in taiwan with translucent dual-layer metal facade
SANAA unveils the Taichung Art Museum as part of the Green Museumbrary

SANAA unveils taichung art museum in taiwan with translucent dual-layer metal facade
the dual-layer facade combines glass or metal cladding with expanded aluminum mesh

SANAA unveils taichung art museum in taiwan with translucent dual-layer metal facade
the mesh screen improves environmental performance while shaping the building’s identity

SANAA unveils taichung art museum in taiwan with translucent dual-layer metal facade
the outdoor garden functions as both a public space and cultural extension

SANAA unveils taichung art museum in taiwan with translucent dual-layer metal facade
the cultural complex combines a metropolitan art museum with the city’s central library

SANAA unveils taichung art museum in taiwan with translucent dual-layer metal facade
the building volume is lifted above the ground to allow light and breeze to pass through