Taichung Cultural Center

TAICHUNG CULTURAL CENTER

The new Taichung Cultural Center, 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 an urban plaza which opens towards both Park Avenue 2 and Gateway Park. The main entrance to TCC 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.

Often cultural centers benefit only the informed few who already have an interest in literature and the arts. Not only does TCC spill its activities into the public realm and the urban plaza, but the public is invited to walk around, through, above and below the new cultural gateway. By inviting the art into the city and the city into the arts, the TCC will provide opportunities for new hybrids of cultural and social life beyond the specific definitions of its constituent parts.