The attempt of architect, Vlado Valkof, with designers Malgorzata Blasik and Anne Valkof, in the New Taipei City Museum of Art competition is to find the essence of art and to materialize our notion of art. To redefine the meaning of the art museum and to alter the way art museum functions. To organize a relationship between ourselves and the world around us. More images and architects’ description after the break.
In addition to animating forms, we have manipulated the movement in order to induce the production of new urban opportunities. Our proposal is a synthesis of the different programmatic functions: art museum, park, footbridge, services in a flexible andversatile space.
Because the site is in the middle of a park, our design approach is to not disconnect the park and to allow the pedestrian move to flow unrestricted. We connect the park from both sides of the museum building by carrying out the existing park alleys and bike paths through the semi-outdoor park pavilions of pop-art, children’s and services programmatic functions and through the covered outdoor plaza-courtyard with lapidarium which serves as a continuation of the park.
The glass pavilions are open and have a visual contact with the park and Da-han river. The new footbridge from Ying-ge train station is a pedestrian access on second level. When it gets inside the building, the footbridge is transformed into a distributing circulation spine. Practically we waste 0% square meters area for corridors.
Programmatically, the art museum complex is organized around the idea of path of gradation and discoveries: a 3D spatial loop where first the users get interested in the covered outdoor plaza-courtyard-lapidarium, then they raise their expectations in the semi-outdoor pop-art pavilions and at the end the users enjoy the euphoria in the Contemporary Fine Arts Museum on the second and third mezzanine levels. The maze/loop scheme of interconnected around freight elevators and galleries facilitates the separation of the exhibition galleries for maintenance and updates.
Architect: Vlado Valkof Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan Designers: Malgorzata Blasik, Anne Valkof Renderings: Rumen Yotov, Image Adv. Civil Engineering: Nick Tonchev Client: New Taipei City Government Type: Culture Date: August, 2011 Status: Competition Area: 51,045 sq. m.
