MVRDV has unveiled its proposal for the Taoyuan Museum of Art competition in Taiwan, turning the city into a large "cherry room" with pink-coloured flower-like volumes. MVRDV has been awarded the 3rd prize with their proposal in the competition in which Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto won the first prize. MVRDV has collaborated with JJP Architects and Planners and TOPOTEK1 from Berlin for the landscape design of the project. 

Video by MVRDV

Encompassing a total of 29,000-square-metre area, MVRDV's new museum and cultural institution is located in the heart of Taoyuan, which the city has grown enormously in recent years due to its proximity to the national airport, the capital and ocean. The studio's proposal is aiming to create a stronger identity and make it even more attractive and sustainable growth in the near future. 

MVRDV's pink-coloured, human scale design is comprised of a vivid blob-shaped volumes that create "rooms" enriched by different functions. These rooms are called Green Rooms, River Room, Jungle Room and Water Room. 

The studio creates new extensions, a series of public spaces on the general flowing layout. These public spaces are used to concentrate the main new program around them that make better use of the parks and then enliven them, which allows to lead a series of urban green ‘rooms’. 

The blob-shaped volumes are expanded with the River Rooms where paths can be nestle, and give access to (house) boats and programs. 

"The border can be surrounded by a higher program to make more usage of the new park. They ‘mark’ the river," said MVRDV.

The studio integrates the current park to frame and house the new cultural museum buildings by turning this space into a true jungle with a remarkable ‘Avatar’ like public space that can truly come alive. All facades and roofs of these institutions are activated and made accessible by the public through housing plants and flowers. 

"The space right in front of the central station is the place for gathering by surrounding it with higher density, a more lively place can be created. It can become the times square of Taoyuan and introduce water features means cooling can be provided in the hot summer months," added the firm. 

"Through fragmenting the program, a series of human scale buildings are created and this avoids blocking access routes through the park. Pathways can go in between and over to open up the program. By designing the programs in circular configurations, they avoid edges and one can easily go ‘around’ enlarging the accessibility."

"By overlaying these petal-like volumes they create connections and nice shadow providing overhangs and shading. These flower-like figures appear in the park and form a new identity for the park," added the team.

Pinkish aluminium façades are applied throughout the whole buildings to gives a strong and beautiful character to the site. Numerous cherry trees are placed on the roof terraces of the buildings to form overviews and add on to the green qualities of the buildings and the park.

MVRDV's design scheme completely converts the Taoyuan city into "a kind of cherry room" in an urban scale and makes the Taoyuan Museum of Art more readable in upper scale and makes the museum with its surrounding landscape a true cultural destination for the city. 

Project facts

Design: MVRDV - Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries

Design Team: Winy Maas, Wenchian Shi, Hui Hsin Liao with Cosimo Scotucci, Daehee Suk, Boris Maas, Alessio Palmieri, Vedran Skansi, Javier Lopez Manchero, Seul Lee and Maria Stamati

Visualization: Antonio Luca Coco, Luca Piattelli, Francesco Vitale, Kirill Emieianov, Pavlos Venturis and Giovanni Coni

Partners

Co-architects: JJP Architects and Planners

Landscape: TOPOTEK1

Engineering: Steensen Varmin

Consultants: Envision Engineering Consultants, Environmental Arts Design, The Urbanists Collaborative, Yuan-Tai Engineering Consulting Co. Ltd, Majestic Engineering Consultants, INC., Taiwan Tech and Pei-ni Beatrice Hsieh

All images © MVRDV

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