The building program is not complicated: it will house a library and an art museum. Much more important for the organizers of the competition is the role of this building in shaping the identity of the city, as well as its vivid architectural image due to this role and the resulting attraction for citizens and tourists. It would seem that the “Bilbao effect” and the time of “iconic” buildings remained in the 2000s, but Taichung continues to play by the old rules.
In 2011, there was already a large-scale competition for a spectacular skyscraper (in fact, without functional content):
then So Fujimoto won it. Now we are talking about the development of a new area of the city, Gateway City (Gateway District), where, in addition to housing, commercial facilities and scientific institutions, there will be a cultural "cluster" represented by the SANAA building.
The second place in the competition was taken by French architects Jean-Loup Baldacci and Felice Fanuele, and the third - by Peter Eisenman.
Honorable Mentions went to the Korean Mass Studies Bureau and the Swiss Stücheli Architekten. All competition participants performed in partnership with local Taiwanese architects.
