Getting lost is good': skybridge and floating stairs bring fun and thrills to mighty new Taiwan museum

"Designed by powerhouse Japanese architecture firm Sanaa, the complex is a collection of eight askew buildings, melding an art museum and municipal library, encased in silver mesh-like walls, with soaring ceilings and meandering pathways. Past the lobby a breezy open space that is neither inside nor out the visitor wanders around paths and ramps, finding themselves in the library one minute and a world-class art exhibition the next."

"A door might suddenly step through to a skybridge over a rooftop garden, with sweeping views across Taichung's Central Park, or into a cosy teenage reading room. Staircases float on the outside of buildings, floor levels are disparate, complementing a particular space's purpose and vibe rather than having an overall consistency. It is easy to get lost in, says Lan Yu-hua, an associate researcher at the museum, laughing. But she says that's something to embrace: We say that getting lost is good."

"Led by 2010 Pritzker prize laureates Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, Sanaa also designed the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and the Sydney Modern gallery. They worked with Taiwanese firm Ricky Liu & Associates Architects+Planners on the six-year build commissioned by the Taichung city government, who had simply asked for an art museum and a library on the same site."

The Taichung Art Museum occupies a complex of eight askew buildings designed by Sanaa, combining an art museum and municipal library within silver mesh-like walls. Visitors traverse breezy intermediate spaces, meandering paths, ramps and floating staircases that lead unpredictably between library reading rooms, world-class galleries, skybridges and a rooftop garden overlooking Central Park. Floor levels vary to suit each space's purpose and mood rather than follow uniform consistency. The municipal government commissioned a six-year build executed with Ricky Liu & Associates Architects+Planners. The design intentionally slows movement and encourages exploration; museum associate researcher Lan Yu-hua says getting lost is good.

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