TAICHUNG CULTURAL CENTER COMPETITION - Taichung, Taiwan

Architects: Platform for Architecture + Research
Client: Construction Bureau, Taichung City Government, Taichung City

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Project Description

The new Taichung Cultural Center, TCC, located within the Taichung Gateway District will house two regional agencies the public library and fine arts museum within one single institution. Our proposal arranges the new cultural center around a public space open towards the city of Taichung and Gateway Park. The building is conceived as a single loop of public space and cultural institutions twisting into a continuous organization that combines the virtues of both institutions, maximizing interdisciplinary exchange while preserving the autonomy.

TCC is conceived as a symbiosis of urbanity and nature. Like Taichung, which is located in the heart of the Taiwan mainland, it will be integrated into the heart of the park. The two institutions and their shared public facilities are gathered around an outdoor space framing a fourth program, an urban plaza which opens towards both Park Avenue 2 and Gateway Park. The multiple ramps and stairs of the building create an institution that is publicly accessible and welcoming on the inside as well as the outside. The urban plaza will attract the everyday life of Taichung flowing through its gateway while framing views of Taiwan Tower. Informal roof seating and stairs will make the TCC a lively place and a natural extension of the life within the park. On special occasions it will turn into an outdoor gallery or urban stage to extend the art into the city as well as the city into the institution.

The main entrance to the new Taichung Cultural Center lies to the northwest adjacent to an auto drop off along Park Avenue 2. Visitors enter through a shared lobby underneath the building’s 6m lift which leads to the public plaza. The south wing of the building tilts into the park landscape for continuous pedestrian access over top of the building from Gateway Park and Taiwan Tower.

Tailored to accommodate the proportions and daylighting requirements of the collections spaces, the reading rooms, the archives and the art galleries, the building is customized to the needs and desires of its individual tenants while fused to form a single cultural whole. The twisting volume creates a building that transforms from a horizontal organization where library, museum and support functions are placed next to each other, to a vertical organization where they are stacked on top of each other through a diagonal organization combining vertical hierarchy, horizontal connectivity and diagonal view lines.

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