Exploring the Gateway to Taiwan:

Opened in 2021 as a part of the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts system, the Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center (HCAC) brought a new vibe to the city and even earned a 2022 Taiwan Architecture Award. The museum’s proximity to the airport meant that the designers had to contend with height restrictions, so they harmonized the museum’s low buildings with the flat terrain and adjacent traditional irrigation pond to create a rural landscape in an urban setting.

Spurring a cultural renaissance

Architect T.Y. Pan drew on traditional East Asian courtyard design and the museum’s subject matter for inspiration, designing the park to look like an inkstone, with the pond as its inkwell.

He used a black-and-white pallette for the buildings, pairing ash-colored béton brut walls with narrow-­paneled folding doors. The second floors are faced with finely patterned matte-black aluminum panels that shine like obsidian in bright sunlight. Viewed from afar, the five buildings of the museum resemble five inkstones dropped into a green field, or five calligraphic seals. As visitors move around the museum’s exterior, the irregular arrangement of the buildings, the slightly curving Inkstone Pool behind them, and the pond at the mu­seum’s back form a beautiful, changing landscape.

Chang Chih-min, acting director of the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts (TMOFA), explains the thinking behind the museum’s creation: “Taoyuan is brimming with arts and culture, and calligraphy is a part of that.” She notes that in her former position with the Taoyuan Department of Cultural Affairs, she used to handle more than 100 applications a year to stage cultural exhibitions.

The opening of the main TMOFA may still be two years away, but Taoyuan already has between 30 and 40 public arts spaces! While Chang cites various local story houses, Zhongli Arts Hall, Taoyuan 77 Art Zone, and Nankan Children’s Art Village, all of which are administered by the Department of Culture, as important existing places for artists to gather, interact and express themselves, she says it was only natural to begin the process of establishing TMOFA once Taoyuan was elevated to special municipality status.

The Taoyuan museum system currently includes HCAC and the Taoyuan Children’s Art Center (TCAC), which just opened this year. Though the main TMOFA is still under construction, its 2026 opening is sure to trigger another wave of enthusiasm for local arts and culture.

In addition to displaying digitized works, HCAC’s 12-meter-tall digital gallery offers views of the sky.

The low-key colors of HCAC’s ash-colored béton brut walls and its black aluminum panels echo aspects of calligraphy while also integrating into the local environment.

The courtyard’s pool mirrors the pond outside and gives the structure a Zen character. 

A playground for kids

Jointly designed by the renowned Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto (a winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize), and Taiwanese architect Joe Shih, TCAC is already beloved by Taoyuan’s families.

TCAC sits across the street from the main TMOFA facility in the Qingpu Special District, close by Taoyuan Airport MRT Station A19. The area is a cultural and recreational hotspot that attracts locals and out-of-town visitors with attractions that include HCAC, which stands near MRT Station A17, and Gloria Outlets, an open-air shopping center built in conjunction with the High-Speed Rail station and located next to MRT Station A18.

Yamamoto used large sheets of glass to let light penetrate TCAC’s interior, and gave the building an angled green roof that extends all the way to the ground on one side to integrate it into the landscape like a hill. The exterior of the roof even has a white switchback walkway that lets visitors climb to the top of the “knoll.”

Chang explains that in contrast to a parent–child center, which provides childcare resources, TCAC’s mission is to enhance children’s appreciation of the arts. The goal is for kids to begin doing so with their own living environment. TCAC curates its exhibitions specifically to grab children’s attention. To that end, it invites artists to create works for kids of different ages incorporating elements specific to Taoyuan.

As an example of this approach, Chou Yu-ling, an editor in TMOFA’s Education and Promotion Department, cites TCAC’s inaugural exhibition, Where the Adventure Begins, explaining that in their work the 12 participating artists depicted aspects of Qingpu’s transformation from agricultural community to emerging city. Lee Wen-cheng’s Good Neighbour incorporated cars, tall buildings, irrigation ponds, riverbeds and even black-and-yellow warning signs into a game that reflected present-day Qingpu, while Deng Wen-jen’s Qingpu Time Travel introduced children to local history via embroidered tapestries.

The Taoyuan Children’s Art Center and the main Museum of Fine Arts face each other across the Taoyuan Airport MRT line and are working together to elevate local arts and culture.

A side view of the TCAC and its steeply sloped roof.

Welcome to Taoyuan!

Brad C.H. Shih, director of the Taoyuan Public Library, believes that the construction of mass transit projects like the Taoyuan Metro sparks a kind of civic imagination. “The opening of the new Metro line will extend the area’s appeal beyond local residents, encouraging international travelers to stay here for a while,” says Shih, enthusiastically anticipating the 2026 opening of the first section of the Taoyuan Metro’s Green Line. “The 2 million visitors that pass through Taoyuan International Airport every year will be able to make this their first stop in Taiwan by simply riding the Metro over from the airport.”

Located next to Metro Station G11 (due to open in 2026), the new Main Library building of the Taoyuan Public Library is a multipurpose space that integrates audiovisual, exhibition, book and commercial attractions and services. Jointly designed by the Japanese architectural firm Azusa Sekkei and Taiwan’s T.C.K. Architect Engineer Planner, the site consists of a large library building and a smaller cinema building located in Taoyuan’s bustling Zhongzheng Arts and Cultural Business District.

The new Main Library is Taiwan’s largest and most attractive library complex. The library building opened in 2022 and already draws 10–20,000 visitors every weekend, with amenities that include a 200-seat performance and exhibition hall, a Tsutaya bookstore and a Starbucks, as well as its large collection of reading materials. The soon-to-open cinema building will be connected to the library building by a pedestrian bridge and will include a Vieshow Cinema and a restaurant.

Sandwishes Studio’s Seed City uses pillows shaped like the seeds of various Southeast-Asian plants to introduce kids to the cultures of Taoyuan’s immigrant residents.

TCAC’s Where the Adventure Begins exhibition invited artists to create art that kids would enjoy, using elements drawn from local culture.

Tuan Tsun-chen’s Traces of the City invites kids to push balls along a long track, recreating the sensation of shuttling around the city.

Chiu Chieh-sen’s Time Map, inspired by the former Taoyuan–Linkou Railway, recounts local memories in its own abstract language.

Chang Chih-min, acting director of the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts. (courtesy of Taoyuan Cultural Affairs Dept.)

A reader’s paradise

Shih, who became library director this year, previously worked in Los Angeles, USA, promoting tourism to Taiwan. His previous work has given him a broader perspective on the library’s role and mission, and the belief that so long as the library accurately targets its audience, it will earn the public’s patronage. Given that the library is a book-oriented educational hub, he says: “My first objective is to get people interested in reading.”

Library officials are going all out to achieve that end. On top of the library’s extensive collection and outstanding facilities, they are organizing large numbers of events and activities for people of all ages. The library is split into areas based on age. The second floor, aimed at seniors, features video magnifiers, books printed in text and Taiwanese braille, and tabletop games that seniors can play with their grandchildren. The third floor has illustrated children’s books, pop-up books, and educational activity and play books. It also regularly hosts family storytelling, crafting, and family reading events. The fourth floor targets teens with comics, light novels and other reading materials appropriate for that age group, as well as providing access to laser cutters and 3D printers, and offering DIY crafting and Gundam-making classes. The fifth floor houses the general book collection as well as a spiritual healing area.

Foreign residents have particularly praised the library’s rich collection of foreign-language books, which includes volumes in English, Japanese, Vietnamese, Spanish, French, and Czech. With 20,000 illustrated children’s books and 40,000 foreign-language volumes, there’s plenty to read. There’s even a French language learning area on the sixth floor, set up in conjunction with the Belgian Office, Taipei.

Everyone who visits the library, whether young or old, Taiwanese, European, American or Southeast Asian, is sure to find something in the collection that speaks to them, sparks a joyful smile, and makes Brad Shih’s vision of the library as a tourist attraction seem like a real ­possibility!

Brad C.H. Shih, director of the Taoyuan Public Library.

Focused on children and their parents, the third floor of the new Taoyuan Public Library holds a large collection of illustrated works and colorful child-sized furniture.

The library’s iconic round lightwell provides natural lighting and ventilation.

The new library’s comprehensive collection and facilities deliver both recreation and entertainment. A local hotspot, it’s even attracting tourists! (MOFA file photo)