Taichung City Cultural Center Entry by Maxthreads

Five teams have recently been shortlisted as stage one winners in the international architecture competition for the design of a new City Cultural Center in Taichung, Taiwan. Taichung, after the merger of Taichung City and Taichung County the third largest city in Taiwan, established this competition to distinguish itself from the other major Taiwanese cities, Taipei and Kaohsiung. Arts and culture will be at the core of Taichung's new urban identity with the cultural industry already being a key contributor to the city's economy and international presence.

The five shortlisted teams are:

• Stücheli Architekten AG / Mathis Tinner (Switzerland)
• MASS STUDIES / Minsuk Cho (South Korea)
• Eisenman Architects, PC / Peter Eisenman (USA)
• Jean-loup Baldacci (France)
• SANAA / Kazuyo Sejima (Japan)

The jury will announce the stage two results at the end of August.

Following is the entry to the Taichung City Cultural Center competition we have received from Scottish practice Maxthreads Architectural Design and Planning.

Project Description from the Architects:

Taichung City Cultural Centre defines the northern arrival gateway to Taichung Gateway Park, providing a public hub to the overall master plan.

As the entry sequence into urban fabric, our proposal reflects the New City’s philosophy of combining nature and innovative technology.

The Taichung City Cultural Centre portrays our vision as the threshold for Taichung Gateway Park. An iconic visual corridor connects local and international arrivals (Transportation Centre) to the main cultural district of the city through a revived, vibrant pubic space.

The vision is to create an unconventional and exceptional gathering space for visitors and inhabitants, animated by public programme.

The Taichung Inverted Cone: Incorporating interactive, mixed-use public spaces, recreating boundaries between each programme, while defining a new typology of Library and Fine Arts Museum: ‘The Galibrary.’ The architectural expression for Taichung’s City Culture Centre – Galibrary has been inspired by the uniquely beautiful mountain-scape of Taroko Gorge National Park, Taiwan. Designing from their dramatic multi-level void spaces, these landforms establish a gateway to landscape beyond. Maxthreads’ proposal, therefore, introduces a strong relationship between the exterior and interior public spaces integrating into the Taichung Gateway Park.

The Taichung City Cultural Centre is designed thoroughly in conjunction with Taichung Gateway park, and includes the integration of culture, education, tourism, environmental conservation, carbon reduction, energy conservation and sustainability.

Project Details:

Project Scope: Taichung City Cultural Centre, Public Library & Fine Arts Museum
Competition Organisers: Taichung City Government, Taiwan
Archititects: Maxthreads Architectural Design & Planning
Project Title: Taichung City Cultural Centre
Project Team: Max Yang, Yusen Chou,  Kris,Yuan-Sung Hsiao, Christabel Lee, Sarah Brown, Jonathan Piper

Find more diagrams of the project proposal in the image gallery below.