A Museum as Entertainment Landscape

 

The Taoyuan Museum of Arts Competition

 


Courtesy: TMOA ©Joe Shih. Architects + Riken Yamamoto and Field Shop

 

 

The competition for the Taoyuan Museum of Arts is similar to now what has become the typical invited format for major projects in Taiwan. In this case, 14 architectural teams submitted their qualifications, and four qualified for the second competition stage. They were Q-LAB + menacoo architecten, Joe Shih. Architects + Riken Yamamoto and Field Shop, Ricky Liu & Associates, and JJPan and Partners, Architects and Planners + MVRDV.

 

 

After the final evaluation was took place on the 28th of February 2018, Joe Shih. Architects + Riken Yamamoto and Field Shop were named the winners with a proposal developing the Museum of Arts as a entertainment landscape hill in the heart of Taoyuan City. Different from most high profile art museums that have appeared on the international scene over the past decades, this one depends almost entirely on a landscape motif as attraction, not a building as symbolic structure. It could be described as a terraced pocket park, with a number of follies on view.

 

 

 

 

 

This museum has three layers of space; the Cube, the Hill and the Inbetween. The Cube is an enclosed exhibition space, and the Hill is a landscape that contains attractions . The Cube and the Hill are connected by the Inbetween, inside of which one can find art installations, performing art and workshops. in addition the terraces include an outside theater. All this is connected by an “inclined lift,” which will connect the various venues. The pop-up boxes serve as multipurpose spaces for commercial and additional exhibition spaces, where artists can sell their works.

 

 

 

Although we haven’t seen the works of the other competitors at this writing, we can assume that the winning design was somewhat of an outlier in the minds of many. But sometimes it takes a totally different approach to win a competition. The final ranking of the participating teams was:

 

 

• First place – Joe Shih. Architects + Riken Yamamoto and Field Shop (Japan)
• Second place – Ricky Liu & Associates
• Third place – JJPan and Partners, Architects and Planners + MVRDV (The Netherlands)
• Fourth place – Q-LAB + menacoo architecten (The Netherlands)

 

 

 


Images: courtesy TMOA ©Joe Shih. Architects + Riken Yamamoto and Field Shop

 

 

Calendar

 

 

Exhibitions and Conferences

 

No events

Recent Archive Updates

Interview: James Mary O’Connor FAIA (Winter 2017)

After receiving his Diploma in Architecture from the Dublin Institute of Technology and BS in Architecture from Trinity College in Dublin, James received his Masters in Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles while a Fulbright Scholar in the U.S. Shortly after his time as a student in Charles Moore’s Master Class at UCLA, he joined the Moore firm in Los Angeles, now Moore Ruble Yudell. Beginning in the late 1980s, he was involved in the firm’s many projects in Germany, many of which dealt with masterplanning and the construction of large housing, primarily in Berlin. Subsequently, he was involved in the Potatisåkern Master Plan & Housing, as well as the Bo01 Housing Exhibition, both in Malmö, Sweden.
James was MRY’s point person in its subsequent involvement with the firm’s many projects in the People’s Republic of China, beginning with their winning competition proposal for the Century Center project in Beijing. Although unbuilt, it didn’t escape the notice of the Chinese, who invited the firm to participate in a competition for the Tianjin Xin-He large neighborhood masterplan—which they won. This was followed by the 2004 Chun Sen Bi An Housing Masterplan competition in the city of Chongqing, located in central China—completed in 2010. This high profile project resulted in a number of affordable and high-end housing projects throughout China. The firm’s most remarkable sustainability project was the COFCO Agricultural Eco-Valley Master Plan project outside Beijing, envisioned to become the first net zero-carbon project of its kind in the world.
In the meantime, the firm’s focus in China has evolved from its concentration on housing to institutional projects, such as the Shanghai University of Technology‘s research buildings. In the meantime MRY has been noted as a leader in the design of campus projects in the U.S. and abroad, as well as numerous government projects—courthouses and embassies.

 

 

Interview: James Mary O’Connor FAIA (Winter 2017)


Playing the China Card: The MRY Example

 

 


Chun Sen Bi An Housing, Chongqing (competition 2004; completion 2010)

 

COMPETITIONS: Moore Ruble Yudell (MRY) has had a reputation as an international player since the 1980s. How did you manage to become involved in China?

 

James O’Connor: We were first invited to take part in a (developer) competition in Beijing in 2002, the Beijing Century Center. We won, but the project was never built. The client was not that serious, and we never got paid. After that, we said that we would never enter another competition in China. But, what turned out to be a real clientele kept after us to participate in one of their projects. After turning them down several times, we finally relented. That was a competition for the Tianjin Xin-he New Town Master Plan and Housing in Tianjin—which we did win.

 

 


Chun Sen Bi An perspectives (above)


Chun Sen Bi An Housing Master Plan

 

COMPETITIONS: Once you have become established in China, it would seem that you almost can pick and choose between competitions and projects.

 

O’Connor: Right before the time of the Olympics, there were few foreign firms working there so we were interviewing clients as opposed to clients interviewing us. And every time we would go out, we would be involved with another project, or another competition. It all started in kind of a shaky way; but that’s kind of how it evolved.

Read more...