In response to the objective of this competition, to create a new type of museum with as goal to have people freely engaging in "Art as lifestyle" and hence to come to a "lifestyle as art" we feel that the solution lies in creating a transition from the city to the park and the river waterfront. The buss of the city and station area, the beautiful greenery and hills of the park, the views of the surrounding mountains and the tranquility of the riverside are important qualities of the location and the site, that if connected by means of the New Taipei Museum of Art will create the possibility to have art be infused into peoples lives in a very natural way. Our proposal therefore concentrates on creating this link between the three elements, city, park and waterfront.
A casual stroll from YINGGE station and Yingge old street area towards the Dahan River will lead visitors across this bridge over Huan-he Road aligned with art-shops. It is almost by chance that one enters the museum complex directly on the second floor. The level of the station area (50m) is almost the same as the level of the bridge (49m) hence a smooth transition is achieved. On this second floor are located the museum and art bookshop as well as the ticket and information counter as an extension of the art shops. The bridge extends further connecting through to the cable car station an open-air-theater, the waterfront cycle- and footpath and culminating in a viewing platform on the waterfront.
Other existing paths of the park are realigned and used to link the museum further to the site. The path that runs from the hill on the east side is lifted up to form another bridge that leads directly to the art and bookshop on the second floor.
The entrance hall is penetrable from all sides at ground floor level. All parts of the museum including the offices and the parking garage at B1 and B2 are accessed through this hall that truly works as a focus and gathering space for the museum. The access strategy is to come to a museum without a front door but highly accessible through its spatial porosity.
In order to arrive at the desired spatial porosity the main architectural concept constituting of the building is the composition of the exhibition spaces as a sequence of large interiors volumes that step up each time turning 90 degrees in another direction to be oriented onto the significant views of the surrounding landscape. The resulting type of piling up is a complex of floating blocks, dramatically cantilevered, with in-between terraces that are used both as exterior exhibition spaces and viewing decks as well as for auxiliary functions such as the art themed restaurants, the children’s ateliers or the Hall of Fame, etc
Visitors move between these spaces like a stroll through a sculpture garden either within such an exhibition volume, or outside on top of it or in-between. This stroll through the exhibition spaces is of a linear meandering nature and is meant as an extension of the stroll through the park that we propose to further turn in a sculpture garden.
