Renowned Japanese architecture firm SANAA has unveiled its design for the Taichung Art Museum, a groundbreaking cultural facility that forms part of the newly completed Taichung Green Museumbrary. The innovative complex is scheduled to open its doors to the public on December 13th, 2025, and represents what has been described as Taiwan's most significant cultural initiative of the year.
Located in Taiwan's second-largest city, the ambitious project breaks new ground by integrating the city's central library with a metropolitan art museum under one roof. This unique combination creates a hybrid cultural facility that establishes an entirely new institutional model for public cultural spaces. The design philosophy centers around the concept of creating "a library in a park and an art museum in a forest," reflecting SANAA's commitment to harmonizing architecture with natural environments.
The Taichung Green Museumbrary occupies a prime location on the northern edge of Central Park, a sprawling 67-hectare green space situated within the much larger 254-hectare Shuinan Trade and Economic Park. This area has significant historical importance, as it was formerly a military airport that was decommissioned in 2004 and has since undergone extensive redevelopment. The cultural complex now serves as the centerpiece of this transformed urban district.
SANAA's architectural approach emphasizes openness and integration with the surrounding landscape through several innovative design strategies. The building volume is deliberately lifted above ground level, creating a unique spatial experience that allows natural light and park breezes to flow freely through shaded plazas below. This elevated design provides open, permeable access from all directions, ensuring that visitors can approach the building from multiple points and experience seamless transitions between indoor and outdoor spaces.
The interior layout represents a radical departure from traditional museum and library design by dissolving conventional divisions between different programmatic areas. Reading areas and exhibition zones are strategically designed to overlap, actively encouraging cross-programming and interaction between visitors engaged in different cultural activities. This innovative approach creates dynamic spaces where library patrons and museum visitors can share experiences and discover new forms of cultural engagement. The library component alone will house an impressive collection of over one million physical and digital resources.
The building's rooftop features a carefully designed outdoor garden that serves multiple functions as both a public landscape and a cultural extension of the interior spaces. This elevated green space offers spectacular panoramic views of Central Park and the broader Taichung skyline, creating a unique vantage point for visitors. The rooftop design enhances the continuity between built and natural environments, reinforcing SANAA's vision of seamless integration with the surrounding park setting.
One of the most striking architectural features is the building's innovative dual-layer facade system, which combines high-performance glass or metal cladding with an outer layer of aluminum expanded metal mesh. This sophisticated silvery veil creates a distinctive sense of transparency while significantly improving the building's environmental performance. The mesh screen not only shapes the building's visual identity but also provides practical benefits in terms of climate control and energy efficiency.
At ground level, the design creates generous shaded plazas that function as public thresholds where the urban fabric meets the cultural facilities. These transitional spaces serve as welcoming entry points that blur the boundaries between the city, the museum, and the library, creating a truly integrated cultural experience that reflects SANAA's innovative approach to contemporary institutional architecture.
