The Green Museumbrary in Taichung, Taiwan’s second largest city, has officially opened. Designed by the Japanese firm SANAA – Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa – in collaboration with the local firm Ricky Liu & associates, it puts two traditionally separated concepts – art museum and public library – in a single space, coining the term ‘museumbrary.’ The hybrid dilutes the boundaries between both worlds, creating an open environment where exhibitions and books coexist. Encompassing 58,000 square meters, this is SANAA’s biggest cultural project to date.

Situated within Taichung’s Central Park, a 67-hectare enclave, this huge cultural complex shows eight cubic volumes of different sizes. Its seemingly random arrangement forms courtyards, terraces, and voids that bring the landscape into the building whie leaking indoor activities out toward the park.

The architecture is lightweight-looking, fluid, and transparent. Each volume has a facade of two layers: an inner one of high-performance metal or glass; and over it an aluminum mesh that unifies the premises. This silvery white skin modulates natural light, blurring the lines between inside and outside and giving the building a weightless presence despite its monumental scale.

The interior presents a mosaic of curves, walkways, and footbridges that connect the pavilions in a flowing, organic way. Sinuous corridors trace a variety of circulations, offering free-feeling routes that let users flit between reading and art contemplation, with no strict borders in between. The main foyer, bathed in light, features a round pond with stones evoking traditional temples. For its part, the museum entrance leads – through a large spiral ramp – to five vertical galleries that form a 27-meter-high exhibition space, the highest in Taiwan.