Reiser + Umemoto, RUR Architecture DPC has completed the multi-phase Taipei Music Center (TMC), transforming a 9-hectare site in the Nangang District into a vital new urban arts precinct. The New York-based firm’s competition winning design has taken over a decade of planning and construction to come to life, during which time it has reflected and also shaped cultural urbanism in the post-industrial revival of Taipei.
Conceived as a ‘City of Pop Music’, the TMC is a hybrid and multipurpose site dedicated to the performance, production, and celebration of pop music in Asia. The site has three major buildings: The Concert Hall, the Cultural Cube, and the Creative Hub. A new elevated public ground bridges the north and south sites which are divided by Civic Boulevard, bringing the three buildings together in a coherent design.
The building program also includes three live-houses, which allow for simultaneous performances and support new talent with intimate concerts. The buildings are interwoven both into the natural surroundings and further into the fabric of the city.
The centerpiece of the design is the 756,000-sqft Concert Hall. Designed for indoor and outdoor performances, this innovative building seats 6000 inside and also accommodates several hundred outside in the public plaza. A faceted double skin wraps around and encloses the auditorium, made of anodized aluminum cladding outer layer and gypsum wall inner layer. The expansive geometric volumes are designed to mirror the organic forms of the nearby mountains, tying the structure into its environment. The Performance Hall utilizes state-of-the-art technology, from the acoustics and lighting to eco-friendly heating and cooling systems.
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Photographs courtesy of Yana Zhezhela and Alek Vatagin
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