Over the past decade, a futuristic edifice has slowly taken shape above the Shilin night market’s narrow, sprawling lanes, just north of central Taipei. The Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC), co-designed by Dutch duo Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA, is an imposing 13-storey aluminium and glass cube which, caught in the right light, exposes the building’s industrial black and grey skeleton.
The genesis of the Taipei city government project, which has cost 6.7bn new Taiwan dollars ($220mn), approaching double its original budget, is one of fits and starts, replete with contractor bankruptcies, paused construction and a Covid cluster infection among engineers. But on Sunday August 7, even as tension with China (which claims ownership of the island) swirled over US politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit, the building, with three theatres, finally opened. “It’s been a long, long 10 years,” says Austin Wang, the chief executive of the centre, over Zoom a week before the official opening.