Taichung City Cultural Center Entry by OXO Architects + Nicolas Laisné Architecte Urbaniste

French firms OXO architects and Nicolas Laisné Architecte Urbaniste have sent us "TCC Garden," the team's joint entry to the Taichung City Cultural Center competition in Taiwan (previously on Bustler).

Project Description from the Architects:

TCC Garden

TCC building is located at the end of Gateway Park between plantations to ecological virtues and activity of the city. It is arranged as a passage, a support from one to the other.

At ground level, a large space is open to all, it is the front door to the library and the museum but also the extension of the park in the building.

On the floors, hanging gardens are home to lush vegetation and plants seem to have settled this great structure naturally.  

On the slender appearance, lightness recalls the delicate balance of bamboo. Magic emerges from the contrast between the huge size of the building and the apparent fragility of the structure.

The light penetrates deeply through these structural lines. It is filtered, moderated by the foliage of trees before reaching the limits of reading rooms, exhibition halls.

The building consists of three types of spaces: 

• The outside terrace gardens that can circulate in contact element and create a temperate climate near the facades. They are an extension of the different programs. It thus becomes possible to come and read under a tree or walking in a park of contemporary sculptures and enjoy a breathtaking view of the city.

• The publicly accessible spaces protected. They are covered and protected from the outside. Their openings, the constitution of their facades are adapted to their function. The light is so controlled by filters in the exhibition venues or reading. Generous openings can enjoy exceptional views of the panoramas in their circulations. Their tall can feel inside the exceptional scale of these facilities to international ambition.

• Technical and management facilities are grouped together under each of the programs they serve. Flows and interactions between the administration and use are well optimized.

The building is designed as a system and it has many empty spaces can accommodate temporary activities or be partially occupied by programmatic changes not originally planned.

Great freedom of use due to its design, because we believe that green building is a sustainable building that easily adapts to new uses over time.

Circulations in the building are organized like a fun course. The views still allow you to enjoy different views varied on the city, the park and the huge interior spaces.

The presence of gardens, calculated facades of their exposure orientation, prevailing winds can create a naturally temperate climate and as free as possible of mechanical cooling.

The TCC is a building of a new generation or built space merges with outdoor relaxation areas. A building in constant motion can be rearranged at will and respond to emerging needs.

It is open to the city and the park, passing tourists but also residents Taishung come to visit for pleasure as much as it provides for the programs it supports.

Project Details:

Name of the project: TCC Garden
Competition name: Taichung city cultural center international competition
Occasion: competition entry
Client: Taichung city government
Location: Taichung, Taiwan
Designer: Manal Rachdi Oxo architects + Nicolas Laisné architecte urbaniste
Architects team: Nicolas Laisné, Manal Rachdi,  Nathalie Fournier, Paula Aranda, Mirella Verdes, Alejandro Blanco Ayllon. Patrick O’Connor, Michael Gloudeman
Engineer: Ramboll UK
Director in charge: Anton Sawicki
Artist: Pascal Haudressy
Year: 2013
Photographs: Courtesy of OXO architects, laisné architectes team

Find more renderings, diagrams and drawings in the image gallery below.