Step outside the building and look up, just once. White triangles overlap, layer upon layer, forming the roof. This shape comes from a flower that blooms in…
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Step outside the building and look up, just once. White triangles overlap, layer upon layer, forming the roof.
This shape comes from a flower that blooms in this city: the phoenix tree, or flame tree. It is Tainan's city flower, bursting into brilliant red blossoms in early summer. Because it flowers during the graduation season, many people remember it as the flower of farewell.
The building was designed jointly by a Japanese architect and a Taiwanese architect. The white roof is meant to block the sun, and stepping beneath it, you notice the temperature is different. In a southern city, creating shade is itself the work of architecture.
There is another museum on the outskirts of the city: the Chimei Museum. This one is entirely European in style. It was built from Western art and musical instruments collected by the founder of a local manufacturing company, who donated them to the city. Admission is kept deliberately low.
In a single city, a museum roofed with a local flower and a museum that has invited the whole of Europe inside exist side by side, at the same time.
The question of which one is "more Tainan" doesn't really mean much. For four hundred years, this city has taken in things that came from afar and reshaped them into its own form. The Dutch fortress, the Japanese department store — it has always been the same story.
Beneath the white roof, try pausing for a moment. That difference in temperature from the world outside — that is the architect's answer.
