The new Taipei Performing Arts Center, designed by OMA / Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, has been completed in Taiwan. The arts center will officially open to the public in August this year.

The project, led by Rem Koolhaas, David Gianotten and Project Director Chiaju Lin, is located at Taipei’s vibrant Shilin Night Market where is a place for new possibilities in performing arts. 

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 a 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. 

"We want to contribute to the history of the theater"

"Theater has a very long tradition. We have seen contemporary performance theaters increasingly becoming standardized, with conservative internal operation principles," said Rem Koolhaas, Founding Partner of OMA. 

"We want to contribute to the history of the theater. Here in Taipei, we were able to combine three auditoria in a particular way." 

"We are interested to see how this architecture will have an impact in terms of extending what we can do in theater," Koolhaas added.

Stages, back stages, 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.

"We are excited by how the building constantly generates new relationships"

"The configuration of three theaters plugged into a central cube has resulted in new internal workings of the performing spaces to inspire unimagined productions," said David Gianotten, Managing Partner – Architect at OMA.

"The Public Loop exposes visitors with and without tickets to these new works and their creative processes." 

"We are excited by how the building constantly generates new relationships between artists, spectators, and the public," Gianotten added.

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 back side." 

The auditoria features opaque facades and acts as "mysterious elements docking against the animated and illuminated central cube clad in corrugated glass."

OMA collaborated with Taiwanese design practice KRIS YAO | ARTECH on this project. Kris Yao, Founder of KRIS YAO | ARTECH, the Taiwanese design collaborating architect: "This new building not only presents itself to the world as a brand new and unique configuration of theater complexes, it also sits perfectly in its location – right at the center where the plebian life of Taipei happens." 

"Its informal, unpretentious, and raw architecture spaces echo the spirits of how citizens of Taipei approach art," Yao added.

Design consultants include Inside Outside, Arup, dUCKS Scéno and Royal HaskoningDHV.

OMA won the design competition for Taipei Performing Arts Center in January 2009 and started construction in 2012. New photographs and updates were released in December 2021. 

Image © Shephotoerd Co. Photography, courtesy of OMA

Image © Shephotoerd Co. Photography, courtesy of OMA

Image © Shephotoerd Co. Photography, courtesy of OMA

Image © Shephotoerd Co. Photography, courtesy of OMA

Image © Shephotoerd Co. Photography, courtesy of OMA

Image © Shephotoerd Co. Photography, courtesy of OMA

The new Taipei Performing Arts Center is described as Asia’s most important cultural development in 2022. 

"The completion of Taipei Performing Arts Center has a significant meaning for the arts. It is special in the sense that it is a platform that grows together with the younger generation. Their continuous reflection and practice will result in a spectacular arts scene in the future," said Liu Ruo-yu, Chairman of Taipei Performing Arts Center.

Project facts

Project: Taipei Performing Arts Center
Status: Completed
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)
Location: Shilin District, Taipei
Program: Theater. Total 58,658 m2. One 1500-seat theater and two 800-seat theaters
Budget: Estimated: 6 billion Taiwan Dollars (around €180 million)

Design Architect: OMA
Partners-in-Charge: Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten

Collaborators

Executive Architect: KRIS YAO | ARTECH (Architect: Kris Yao; Project Principals: Willy Yu, Grace Lin) 

Theater Consultant: dUCKS Scéno, Creative Solution Integration Ltd.
Acoustic Consultant: Royal HaskoningDHV and Theo Raijmakers (Level Acoustics & Vibration), SM&W 

Landscape Designer, Interior Designer: Inside Outside

Structure, MEP, Building Physics, Fire Engineer: Arup
Structural Engineer: Evergreen Consulting Engineering Inc. 

Services Engineer: Heng Kai Inc., IS Leng and Associates Engineers 

Fire Engineer: Taiwan Fire Safety Consulting Ltd.
Lighting Consultant: Chroma 33
Façade Engineer: ABT, CDC Inc.
Sustainability Consultant: Segreene Design and Consulting

Landscape Consultant: CNHW
Geotechnical Engineer: Sino Geotech
Traffic Consultant: Everest Engineering Consultants Inc.
Animation: Artefactory

Model: RJ Models, Vincent de Rijk
Model Photography: Iwan Baan, Jeffrey Cheng, Frans Parthesius
Site Photography: Chris Stowers, Shephotoerd Co. Photography
Main Construction Contractor: International Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd (former general contractor), Sun-Sea Construction Co. Ltd. (façade continuous construction), Ancang Construction Co. Ltd. (interior & landscape continuous construction), Jung Yan Interior Design & Decoration Co., Ltd., Tech-Top Engineering Co., Ltd. (MEP, fire engineer), Shiu Guan Machine Electric Engineering Co. Ltd. (air-conditioning), Jardine Schindler Lifts Limited (elevator facilities)
Theater Equipment Contractor: L&K Engineering Co. Ltd., IX Technology Ltd., JR Clancy, Inc.

Top image © OMA by Chris Stowers.

All images © OMA by Chris Stowers unless otherwise stated. 

All drawings  © OMA.

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