The first railway from the Ching Dynasty, 3 subways and the High Speed Rail pass underneath this historical site in the heart of Taipei. Across the street, Fumihiko Maki’s twin towers rise 80F amongst low-rise historical buildings into the sky.

The space-time revolution of Taiwan started here, and expands from here. In this exciting dense urban crossing where old meets new, fast collides with slow; the new museum will be the service hub, urban connector and main event and exhibition center to the museum complex. The design concept captures the notion of speed and transformation as form and movement. Public walkways are hung off the main structure (housing the main exhibition spaces) as simple “twisted” tubes that are “cut” in rhythms inspired by railway tracks. As one moves through the museum or in and out of its black box exhibition halls, light and shadows play out their experiential progression in a smooth transformation of light & dark, mass & void. The spatial experience becomes a distinctive architectural form, the lines of movement organizational, spatial and symbolic.

Project data

Location: Taipei City, Taiwan
Client: National Taiwan Museum
Architecture Design: XRANGE Architects
Landscape Design: XRANGE Architects

Site Area: 17,000 m²
Floor Area: 5,000 m²
Design: 2007