Taipei, Taiwan

Taipei Performing Art Center

Ábalos + Sentkiewicz Arquitectos, Ricky Liu Associates

From human being origins, people doing circles around someone who is speaking, singing, dancing or arguing – under a tree shadow if possible – has been the main characteristic of performing. Our music halls maintain this original condition and extend their geometry to the whole complex, which turns into a group of big trees with a stratified structure, as the local tropical forest, working at the same time as a functional scheme and an environmental strategy:
Over the trees a roof tour that conform a new landscape is proposed, giving identity to the complex.
Music Halls are in the trees, organized around a principal lobby and two secondary ones. Each hall adopts a particular configuration reinforced by its different coloration (gold silver, bronze).
Under the trees, topography splits in two: Upwards, composing a park protected from the sun and the rain. Downwards composing a complex of commercial galleries that extend the activity from Shilin Night Market and goes through the building.
Against the typical configuration of a principal and a back façade this project achieves a total urban isotropy, not only with four but with five facades in relation with the context.

Client: Taipei City Government

Architects: Abalos + Sentkiewicz Arquitectos
Local Partner: Ricky Liu and Associates / Architects + Planners
Project Directors: Iñaki Abalos, Renata Sentkiewicz

Project Team: Jorge Álvarez Builla (Project manager)
Andrés Besomi Terrazas
Margaux Eyssette
Víctor Garzón
Nissim Haguenauer
Pablo de la Hoz
Ismael Martín
Alfonso Miguel
Laura Torres Roa