Taipei Performing Arts Center
Architect: OMA
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Type: Cultural
Year: 2022
Photographs: Chris Stowers, Shephotoerd Co. Photography
State Prior to the Works
The following description is courtesy of the architects. An ancient art form for civic participation, theater has evolved into the modern world as a vocation of the culturally refined, with its significance in daily life diminished. Theater space is valued for its potency for formal cultural productions, rather than its power to include and divert, and to be instantaneous.
Contemporary performance theaters increasingly become standardized: a combination of two different-
sized auditoria and a black box, with conservative internal operation principles for authentic work. Can a public theater still be inclusive, accommodating the classic and the serendipitous, the highbrow and the
masses, the artistic and the social—a place for the creative life of all?
Located at Taipei’s Shilin Night Market marked by its vibrant street culture, Taipei Performing Arts Center
is architecture in limbo: specific yet flexible, undisrupted yet public, iconic without being conceived as
such. Three theaters plugged into a central cube allow performing spaces to be coupled for new
theatrical possibilities. The cube is lifted off the ground for a Public Loop to extend the street life of Taipei
into the theater. New internal possibilities and connections of the theater generate different relationships
between producers, spectators, and the public, also a critical mass that works as a fresh, intelligent icon.
The central cube consolidates the stages, back stages, support spaces of the three theaters, and the
public spaces for spectators into a single and efficient whole. The theaters can be modified or merged for
unsuspected scenarios and uses. The spherical 800-seat Globe Playhouse, with an inner and an outer
shell, resembles a planet docking against the cube. Intersection between the inner shell and the cube
forms a unique proscenium for experimentation with stage framing. Between the two layers of shells is
the circulation space that brings visitors to the auditorium. The Grand Theater, slightly asymmetrical in
shape and defying the standard shoebox design, is a 1500-seat theater space for different performing
arts genres. Opposite to it and on the same level is the 800-seat Blue Box for the most experimental
performances. When coupled, the two theaters become the Super Theater—a massive space with
factory quality that can accommodate productions that are otherwise only possible in found spaces. New
possibilities of theater configurations and stage settings inspire productions in unimagined and
spontaneous forms.
The general public—with or without a ticket—is invited into the theater through a Public Loop, which runs
through the theater’s infrastructure and spaces of production that are typically hidden. Portal windows
along the Public Loop allow visitors to look at the performances inside and technical spaces in between
the theaters.
Different than typical performance centers that have a front and a back side, Taipei Performing Arts
Center has multiple faces defined by the theaters protruding above ground. With opaque facades, these
theaters appear as mysterious elements against the animated and illuminated central cube clad in
corrugated glass. A landscaped plaza beneath the compact theater is an additional stage for the public
to gather, in this dense and vibrant part of Taipei.
Watch video of the Taipei Performing Arts Center here
Project Details
- Project: Taipei Performing Arts Center
- Status: Completed
- Client: Authority-in-Charge: Taipei City Government; Executive Departments: Department of Cultural Affairs, Department of Rapid Transit Systems (First District Project Office), Public Works Department
- (New Construction Office)
- Location: Shilin District, Taipei
- Program: Theater. Total 58,658 m2. One 1500-seat theater and two 800-seat theaters
- Budget: Estimated: 6 billion Taiwan Dollars (around €180 million)
- Design Architect: OMA
- Partners-in-Charge: Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten
- Construction Phase: 2012 – 2021
- Project Director: Chiaju Lin
- Associates: Paolo Caracini, Inge Goudsmit, Daan Ooievaar
- Team: Vincent Kersten, Han Kuo, Kevin Mak, Chang-An Liao, with Yannis Chan, Hin-Yeung Cheung, Meng-Fu Kuo, Nien Lee, Nicole Tsai
- Design Development Phase: 2009 – 2013
- Project Architects: Ibrahim Elhayawam, Adam Frampton
- Team: Yannis Chan, Hin-Yeung Cheung, Jim Dodson, Inge Goudsmit, Alasdair Graham, Vincent Kersten, Chiaju Lin, Vivien Liu, Kai Sun Luk, Kevin Mak, Slobodan Radoman, Roberto Requejo, Saul Smeding, Elaine Tsui, Viviano Villarreal-Buerón, Casey Wang, Leonie Wenz
- Competition Phase: (2008 – 2009)
- Partners-in-Charge: Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, in collaboration with Ole Scheeren
- Project Architects: Adam Frampton, Mariano Sagasta Garcia, André Schmidt
- Team: Erik Amir, Joshua Beck, David Brown, Jean-Baptiste Bruderer, Andrew Bryant, Sean Hoo Ch’ng, Steven Yingnien Chen, Dan Cheong, Ryan Choe, Antoine Decourt, Mitesh Dixit, Pingchuan Fu, Miguel Huelga de la Fuente, Alexander Giarlis, Richard Hollington, Takuya Hosokai, Shabnam Hosseini, Nicola Knop, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Chiaju Lin, Sandra Mayritsch, Vincent McIlduff, Alexander Menke, Gabriele Pitacco, Shiyun Qian, Joseph Tang, Agustín Pérez Torres, Xinyuan Wang, Ali Yildirim, Patrizia Zobernig
Collaborators
- Executive Architect: KRIS YAO | ARTECH (Architect: Kris Yao; Project Principals: Willy Yu, Grace Lin)
- Theater Consultant: dUCKS Scéno, Creative Solution Integration Ltd.
- Acoustic Consultant: Royal HaskoningDHV and Theo Raijmakers (Level Acoustics & Vibration), SM&W
- Landscape Designer, Interior Designer: Inside Outside
- Structure, MEP, Building Physics, Fire Engineer: Arup
- Structural Engineer: Evergreen Consulting Engineering Inc.
- Services Engineer: Heng Kai Inc., IS Leng and Associates Engineers
- Fire Engineer: Taiwan Fire Safety Consulting Ltd.
- Lighting Consultant: Chroma 33
- Façade Engineer: ABT, CDC Inc.
- Sustainability Consultant: Segreene Design and Consulting
- Landscape Consultant: CNHW
- Geotechnical Engineer: Sino Geotech
- Traffic Consultant: Everest Engineering Consultants Inc.
- Animation: Artefactory
- Site Photography: Chris Stowers, Shephotoerd Co. Photography
- Main Construction Contractor: International Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd (former general contractor), Sun-Sea Construction Co. Ltd. (façade continuous construction), Ancang Construction Co. Ltd. (interior & landscape continuous construction), Jung Yan Interior Design & Decoration Co., Ltd., Tech-Top Engineering Co., Ltd. (MEP, fire engineer), Shiu Guan Machine Electric Engineering Co. Ltd. (air-conditioning), Jardine Schindler Lifts Limited (elevator facilities)
- Theater Equipment Contractor: L&K Engineering Co. Ltd., IX Technology Ltd., JR Clancy, Inc.
