“Taiwan officially holds bragging rights for the largest performing arts center under one roof,” writes Julissa Treviño in last Friday’s (4/20) Smithsonian Magazine. “The sprawling 1.5-million-square-foot National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, designed by Dutch firm Mecanoo Architects, was recently completed in the southern port city of Kaohsiung…. Slated for an October opening, the futuristic-looking mega space, called ‘Weiwuying’ for short, incorporates five performing spaces—including a 2,260-seat opera house, 2,000-seat concert hall (boasting a 9,085-pipe organ) and a 470-seat recital hall. The venue will also include an outdoor performance space capable of seating up to 20,000 people…. Weiwuying is situated within a 116-acre subtropical park in the heart of Kaohsiung, where a military training base once stood.… The area’s subtropical climate was actually taken into account in the design of the center…. Architects … used local Banyan trees as inspiration to let air flow freely inside Weiwuying in the fittingly named Banyan Plaza…. The plaza … is intended to serve as a community space, open to the public day and night. One of the first performances already locked in for the center will be the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Gustavo Dudamel.”
Posted April 27, 2018
In photo: Taiwan’s National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts
