SANAA’s most ambitious cultural project yet, ready to open in Taiwan

The official opening of the Taichung Green Museumbrary, SANAA's first public building in Taiwan and the largest cultural project to date designed by the Japanese studio (winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2010) is announced for December 2025. The complex, located on the northern edge of Taichung Central Park on the site of a former military airport, inside the Shuinan Commercial and Economic Park, brings together the Taichung Public Library (with more than 1,000,000 paper and digital books) and the Taichung Art Museum, setting a benchmark for a new model of cultural institution relying on functional hybridisation, interdisciplinary “shuffling” and multifaceted learning. In the words of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, Partners of SANAA: “We have always hoped to create an open building that many people can easily participate in.  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”.

In keeping with SANAA's best architectural tradition, immaculate, ethereal volumes dematerialising the built mass and fluid, interconnected spaces blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior interpret the cultural institution's spirit of inclusiveness, openness and permeability. Eight interwoven volumes of different heights and sizes house the museum and library spaces in a clear but fluid sequence, connected by staggered paths that encourage visitors to explore and discover. On the outside, glass panels, pre-painted galvanised steel sheets and stretched aluminium wire mesh compose a light and transparent shell that accentuates the interaction between architecture and landscape. On the ground floor, shaded squares provide access from multiple directions, composing a weave of public spaces inviting pause and interaction. At the top, a roof garden provides an exceptional viewpoint over the lush vegetation of Central Park and the city skyline.

With the announcement of the Taichung Art Museum's inaugural exhibition “A Call of All Beings: See you tomorrow, same time, same place”, curated by a team from Taiwan, Romania/Korea and the USA, the completion of the Taichung Green Museumbrary will turn the spotlight on a modern metropolis that is becoming more and more open to innovation and international dialogue.