Taichung Cultural Center, Taichung - TW, 2013
International open competition
The concept of symbiosis - which means the living together of unlike organisms – is a pleading for cultural diversity and richness in a synergetic relationship with nature. Symbiogenesis is the merging of organisms into a new species. Besides the idea of emergence, this provides not only an alternative view onto the past (evolution) but creates a new spirit for the future – progress or evolution is not based on competition for resources but on networking and cooperation.
Taichung Cultural Center will become such a place of exchange and cooperation. Symbiotically intertwined with the adjacent park it will become a novel and memorable cultural landscape. The proposal suggests a cultural network of museum, library, park and Taichung City with diverse open, semi-open and enclosed spaces for formal and informal cultural activities and encounters.
Symbiosis is also a model for the mutual relationship between the museum and the library from which both will hugely benefit. The two institutions are different, if not contrary: the museum is traditionally about the original and its aura. People come to see and experience the “real thing“ - the artpiece. The library is all about the copy, an archive which becomes increasingly digital. Can we think of the museum more like a library - as a place of exchange and discussion? And suggest a library that becomes a museum for books and a place celebrating the aura of the analogue?
Both library and museum are institutions that frame and define the discourse of art and culture. According to Bordieau, a frame establishes culture, yet always leaves things undiscussed. Taichung Cultural Center will be a place for both, so-called high culture and informal cultural activities. It will create an urban field for exchange and communication. Its aim is to trigger cultural production by being inclusive instead of exclusive.
Team: Christoph Müller, Hannes Tallafuss, Andreas Körner, Markus Stürzenbacher
Structural engineering: Bollinger Grohmann Schneider ZT GmbH
Climate engineering: Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH
exterior rendering / ©soma
