Taichung City Cultural Center

Project Architect, Eisenman Architects. International Competition, Taiwan, Third Prize, August 2013 (with Fei & Cheng, Land Collective)

The Taichung City Cultural Center aspires to be a gateway, a showcase, a cultural landmark, an ecological benchmark, and a garden pavilion, and to house a fine arts museum and a public library. Called “The Machine in the Garden,” the project synthesizes these ambitions in an iconic form that negotiates the proposed Taichung Gateway Park and master plan, the surrounding context, and the intricate programmatic and environmental requirements.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.