Oyler Wu Collaborative and Taiwanese partner Ren Lai Architects have won a competition to re-envision the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan. Selected among finalists including Asif Khan with C.M.Chao Architects, Sou Fujimoto Architects with WSAA Design Team, and Liao Architects and Associates, the winning project proposes a newly renovated exterior that seeks to reconnect the building with its evolving context.
Organized by the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA), the renovation competition attracted proposals from Taiwan, America, UK, and Japan. Highlighting the innovative image of the brand-new museum, and further strengthening the visibility of the KMFA to the city and to the world, the winning scheme by Oyler Wu Collaborative and Ren Lai Architects is both a transformation and a rebirth.
A cultural interface between newly developed and historic neighborhoods, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts has always been at the forefront of the city’s expanding arts culture. Encompassed by an extensive ecological park, the museum was looking to “reinvigorate its image as an artistic extension into the surrounding city”. Oyler Wu Collaborative and Ren Lai Architects’ proposal has created an addition to the museum’s existing facade that will engage the building in an entirely new, more lively dialogue within the growing context. In fact, the winning scheme puts in place a series of ethereal volumes and articulate framework that “hovers in front of the existing façade”.
Embodying the artistic aspirations of the museum, an outstretched sculptural canopy, “unfurls delicately as it welcomes guests into the new sunken plaza […] The redesigned landscape of the park encourages meandering and offers moments of intimacy in which wanderers might find a seat among the architectural elements”. Composed by contrasting complex forms against a subtle grid, the canopy volumes, gripping lightly to the columns, interfacing with one another, appear to billow loosely at moments.“The sculptural elegance of the canopy brings an entirely new vitality to the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, and allows the institution to fulfill its integral role as the cultural interface between Kaohsiung and its citizens”.
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
- Architects: Oyler Wu Collaborative and Ren Lai Architects
- Owner: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
- City: Kaohsiung
- Country: Taiwan
- Area: 24,000 sq.ft
- Year: 2020
- Structural Engineer: Dayan Engineering
- O.W.C. (Design Team): Dwayne Oyler, Jenny Wu, Andy Magner, Hans Koesters, Thompson Burry, Owen Duross, Marianna Girgenti, Curt Budd, Hans Steffes, Paul Germaine McCoy, Burak Celik
- Ren Lai Arch. (Design Team): Ren Lai, Jiann Jyh Wu, Yuan Ru You, Sin Hua Wei
