Asia University Museum of Modern Art

Taichung, Taiwan

The main structure of the Asia Museum of Modern Art at Asia University has been constructed from bare concrete structural components, faced with curtain walls. The interior covers an area of 4,111 square meters and the surrounding grounds measure about 19,840 square meters.

Designed by the world-famous Japanese architect Tadao Ando, the equilateral triangle has been adopted as the basic constructional element and skillfully incorporated in a repeated motif to form the three stories of the equilateral triangle-shaped building. An atrium space is created with a crisscrossing arrangement of concrete beams and outdoor terraces contain sculpture displays.

While the ground floor contains a café, shop and lecture hall, the first and second floors both contain art galleries, with one floor being the reverse mirror image of the other.

On the first floor the perimeter hallways are wide enough to be used for the display of artworks on moveable walls, while on the top floor much narrower hallways circumvent a set of inner galleries. Thus, the galleries on the lower floor have a lot of daylight from one side, the upper floor galleries have to depend on electric light for illumination.