56 New Taipei City Musuem of Art

Last few months we have been very busy with several things: exhibitions, buildings, travelings. However, one of the most intensive and exciting among all is a competition we did together with 12 students of mine: New Taipei City Museum of Art International Design competition. Surprisingly, we won a Merit Award, 1 out of 10. :)
Apart from us, allzoners, the 12 students are: Puttikit Suwannboon, Pote Laddphan, Kiattikun Nimcharoenwan, Thanyaporn Tassatarn, Patsaraporn Liewwatanakorn, Kanya Vithayadumrong, Kanyada Nijarankul, Nattanan Vonpen, Nattapat Paiboonvarakit, Asrin Sanguanwongwan, Soon Thaitavorn and  Chalankiate Sukathammo. Also our intern Jarupa Tachasirinugune was collaborating with us too.


The competition entry was a brief of my class "Design Method" in Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University. The class began in June, when we met every week for 4-5 hours discussing various topic related to art, art museum, contemporary culture of Asian city.

During the last few weeks before submission we set up our 2nd floor as a 'WAR Room' for the final stage of the competition. -_-"




The key idea is to create a museum that is NOT a 'sacred place' for art, rather it should be a place where people in town feel as comfortable and fun with art as a shopping mall. Asian lifestyle of colorful events and seasonal changes is the image we have for the atmosphere.

The very dynamic condition of Asian city is seen through the concept of 'on-going construction'. The building began to take shape of the physical concept with this image the gigantic outdoor Buddha statue in Burma. It has a clear shape, but at the same time, it suggest the potential of changes.

Given the complex requirement the programs, the building area is gigantic. We, therefore, had to split the given program requirement into smaller section. We use the scale of Yinge Town, one of small periphery towns where the New Taipei City has swallowed and the museum is located, to be the point of reference by superimposing the urban fabric onto out site. Moreover, we want the museum to be as lively as the town market - Asian Urban Space...

The scale of the building has to be familiar to all grandmas in town, so the ground floor scale of the building is basically the Yinge town itself (the downtown) where all the super familiar and relax programs such as markets, restaurants, shops, workshops are located as attractors to the people. The upper town is basically the same scale of the downtown, but upside down, where all the serious art program are located. The void in-between is a flexible area where art activities and local general activities could meet and mingle - with no separation between 'art and life'.

The building is cover by 'super grid' structure to accommodate temporary expansion programs in all direction and to hold up the overall building as a whole loosely --- always on-going construction.




The overall atmosphere of the building in the void between the uptown and the downtown where all activities are happening and changing - art and life.


The 'super-grid' allows the building to be transformed upon different events:
The Chinese's New Year:

Taipei Biennale of Art:

Taipei Film and Media festival:

The competition was announced when some of us were attending a workshop of MAT Fukuoka in Japan, so we were celebrating together with the rest who were in Bangkok online via Skype. :)

Also we promised each other that next time we will try to get more than Merit Award. :) Until then, see you!