Taipei, Taiwan
“Theater has a very long tradition. We have seen contemporary performance theaters increasingly becoming standardized, with conservative internal operation principles,” says Rem Koolhaas, Founding Partner of OMA.
“We are interested to see how this architecture will have an impact in terms of extending what we can do in theater,” Koolhaas adds.
Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA and Taiwanese architect Kris Yoa ofof KRIS YAO | ARTECH joined forces to complete the new Taipei Performing Arts Center, located at Taipei’s vibrant Shilin Night Market which is a place for new possibilities in performing arts.
Characterized as Asia’s most important cultural development in 2022, the 58,658-square-metre building features compact and flexible spaces exploring “different aspects of the theater.”
The building is a combination of three different types of volumes: a spherical 800-seat Globe Playhouse, a 1,500-seat Grand Theater, and an 800-seat Blue Box plugged into a central cube.
The building offers a free-to-access Public Loop that invites visitors into the different masses of the building.
Stages, backstages, and supporting spaces of the three theaters are designed within the Cube – which allows the Grand Theater and the Blue Box to be coupled to form a Super Theater—as described by OMA, this is “a massive space with factory quality for unsuspected performances.”
The Globe Playhouse with a unique proscenium allows experimentation with stage framing.
OMA elevates the Central Cube from the ground to create a landscaped plaza.
From there, visitors are able to access a Public Loop – which features portal windows to provide views inside the three theaters and passes through typically hidden performing arts production spaces.
Taipei Performing Arts Center comprises multiple faces defined by the protruding auditoria – which is described as “different than typical performance centers that have a front and a backside.”
The auditoria feature opaque facades and act as “mysterious elements docking against the animated and illuminated central cube clad in corrugated glass.”
Project: Taipei Performing Arts Center
Architects: OMA
Partners-in-Charge: Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten
Project Director: Chiaju Lin
Executive Architect: Kris Yao | ARTECH
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)
Photographers: Chris Stowers
