The proposal for the New Taipei Museum of Art, by Meter architects, is predicated on exploring and celebrating the interrelationship between commerce and the display of art. This approach involved distributing the museum and commercial programs so as to heighten the drama of the encounter between them. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Museum galleries and shops share many of the same lighting and display strategies. Retailers consciously employ atmospheric ques designed to imbue their products with the same cultural authority that one associates with museum artifacts. Without flattening the difference between them, our proposal is designed to emphasize the commonalities between art and commerce by foregrounding what they have in common.
The primary difference between the experience of the museum and that of shopping is emphasized by the spatial contrast between the two. Where the shopping experience is characterized by openness, even light, visibility and predictability, the museum experience is defined by unexpected changes in scale, views, light, sound and the chance encounter of other museum visitors. Where the shopping experience compels a predictable and normative exchange between individuals, the museum experience fosters unexpected encounters between groups and individuals.
At specific points in the museum experience and in the shopping experience you come into contact with the other. For the most part these points of contact don’t allow you to move between them, only to observe. It is through this mediated encounter that we seek to heighten the contrast between the two experiences.
Architects: Meter Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan (R.O.C) Design Team: Henry Buckingham, Marco Vinicio Monter Status: Competition Project Year: 2011 Site Area: 20,000 sqm Project Area: 51,045 sqm
