Museum of Prehistory | KRIS YAO | ARTECH

The Museum of Prehistory sits in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, where relics dating back 5,000 years have been unearthed. The building follows two different axes. The first has a north-south configuration, and this takes the form of a black basalt block, pointing toward true north, in the manner of ancient burial sites, symbolizing the order of the past. The other axis rotates 19 degrees to align with present-day Tainan’s city grid, and over this, a glass tube hovers, adhering to the order of the modern world. These twin concepts run through the entire museum, from the placement of the building itself to the display of objects, signifying the very nature of archaeological work—namely, using methods of the present to explore evidence of the past, and applying a modern perspective to interpret objects from a previous time.

The museum consists of three architectural elements. First is the square main building, each side being 70 meters long and 21 meters tall. Its surface is clad with split-face basalt, producing a black brutalist mass that sits stably on the site. Second is the monumental square tube, 90 meters in length and with a square section of 8.7 by 8.7 meters. This was constructed from structural glass wrapped around a series of steel frames. The glazed square tube slices the main building in half, dividing displays from offices, storage areas, and conservation labs, clearly splitting the space into one area for staff, and another for visitors. Third is the square aluminum section, each side measuring 3.3 meters wide, which runs externally from floor to floor, tying the two other elements together.

From the entrance plaza, an enclosed metal walkway—split in four places to admit natural light—acts as a dramatic vestibule for the museum. The approach leads immediately to the tilted glass tunnel, which slices diagonally through the block, bringing visitors right up to the top of the building. While progressing through this passageway, visitors get the sense of traveling through the layers of archaeological dig, passing walls decorated with reliefs of human and animal figures, building anticipation for the surprise that awaits them at the top—a visual highlight in the form of high-speed trains that whisk by every few minutes.

From this glimpse of the modern world, visitors continue on to a winding ramp—again, within a tunnel—that descends in a counterclockwise direction to displays of prehistoric artifacts and traces of human activities. The route is punctuated by a courtyard with vibrant yellow walls that frames the sky as a perfect square. The direction of descent was intentionally designed to create the sense of winding back the clock, or traveling back in time, as if accompanying archaeologists as they dig through layers of history and make their discoveries. Visitors slowly make their way down one gentle slope, only to find another waiting at the next turn, creating the illusion of an expedition descending ever deeper into the archaeological realm. The changing orientation enhances the rise and fall of the slope, creating the perception of a never-ending pathway, when in reality, the journey spans just three floors.

At the entrance to the museum, terraces bordered by river rocks evoke the retaining walls traditionally used in the rice fields of the region. This establishes an appropriate transition as visitors progress toward the building itself, its interlocking structures symbolizing the use of modern methods to carry out an archeological exploration.
Glimpses of the high-speed train, lasting no more than three seconds a time, provide the visual highlight at the end of the glass passageway, where the site’s close proximity to the high-speed rail track allows visitors a close-up view from an observation deck. This silent, recurring scene is like a work of art in itself—and a powerful contrast to the static yet buzzing atmosphere of the exhibition spaces to come.