Pritzker Prize and 2025 RIBA Royal Gold Medal-winning Japanese architects SANAA’s largest cultural project to date, including 8 interconnecting volumes located in a 67-hectare green park, is set to open in December 2025 in Taiwan. 

Called Taichung Green Museumbrary, the project, dubbed as the country's most significant cultural development of 2025, will officially open to the public on December 13, 2025. 

Situated in Taichung, Taiwan's second-largest city, the project is planned to become a new international cultural attraction. The development is expected to set a new standard for arts institutions by being the first location in Taiwan to combine a metropolitan art museum with the city's central library.

Rendering of the main entrance of Taichung Green Museumbrary, connecting Taichung Art Museum and Taichung Public Library, courtesy of Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government

The new Taichung Art Museum and the Taichung Public Library are housed in the 58,016-square-meter Taichung Green Museumbrary, which was created by an international partnership between Taiwan's Ricky Liu & Associates Architects + Planners and SANAA, the renowned Japanese architectural team led by 2010 Pritzker Prize laureates Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.  

The two-venue complex is SANAA's largest cultural project to date as well as their first public structure in Taiwan. The design, which consists of eight interconnected volumes of various sizes covered in glass and metal and surrounded by a spotless white extended metal mesh curtain façade, embodies SANAA's characteristic concepts of transparency and fluidity.

The completion of Taichung Green Museumbrary reflects a modern metropolis' commitment to innovation and ambition to engage in international dialogues, as demonstrated by the announcement of Taichung Art Museum's inaugural exhibition, "A Call of All Beings: See you tomorrow, same time, same place," which was curated by an international team from Taiwan, Romania/Korea, and the United States.

Rendering of the Cultural Forest on the rooftop of Taichung Green Museumbrary, courtesy of Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government

Taichung Green Museumbrary It situated on the northern edge of the 67-hectare Central Park in the 254-hectare Shuinan Trade and Economic Park, which was once a military airfield that was shut down in 2004. Taichung is the second-largest city in Taiwan, with a population of 2.8 million. 

The Taichung Green Museumbrary's motto, "a library in a park and an art museum in a forest," is captured in SANAA's design, which features several spatial highlights - including a boundless, inclusive space, an outdoor rooftop garden, and lightness and openness.

"We have always hoped to create an open building that many people can easily participate in," said Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, Partners of SANAA. 

"Whether it is the museum providing visual learning through art or the library offering education through literature, combining the two to create a new multifaceted learning space is what we believe to be one of the main characteristics of this building."  

"We have carefully considered how to gently link the two entities together to create a place that connects learning and communication for people," Sejima and Nishizawa added.

Rendering of the Atrium of Taichung Art Museum, courtesy of Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government

Including a boundless 

The building removes the lines between museums and libraries, fostering an inclusive, open space where reading and exhibiting coexist. It is anticipated that the Taichung Public Library would have more than a million books in print and digital formats.

An outdoor rooftop garden

Visitors can take in the expansive views of the metropolitan skyline and the lush foliage of Central Park from the Cultural Forest's outdoor terrace. 

Designed to honor the location's unique Central Park setting, it invites museum and library patrons to take in the scenery from the rooftop garden.

Lightness and openness

The façade is composed of two layers: an outside layer of aluminum expanded metal mesh and an interior layer of high-performance low-emissivity glass or metal cladding. The building appears lighter and more transparent because of this silvery-white curtain.  

Rendering of the Reading Area of Taichung Public Library,  courtesy of Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government

The structure's link to its environment has been improved by raising the building volume to let in more natural light and the park wind. Visitors may reach the building from all directions, including the neighborhood and Central Park, thanks to the ground level covered plazas, which create a welcoming and open public area.

After the establishment of the Taipei Biennial (1998) and Taipei Dangdai art market (2019), the Taichung Art Museum is the newest and most significant addition to Taiwan's thriving art scene. 

Under the direction of director Yi-Hsin Lai, the museum is dedicated to promoting international exhibitions and exchange programs that connect Taiwan with the world of art while also assisting local artistic practices.

Rendering of the Teen Reading Area of the Taichung Public Library, courtesy of Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government

SANAA was recently awarded the 2025 RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, announced by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). In addition,  Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima were named as the winners of the esteemed 2025 Le Prix Charlotte Perriand by the Créateurs Design Association & Awards (CDA).

The top image in the article: Rendering of Taichung Green Museumbrary, courtesy of Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government.

> via Taichung Art Museum

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