Antoine Predock - National Palace Museum ( NPM)

Antoine Predock
National Palace Museum ( NPM)
Southern Branch
Taibo City, Taiwan

The Museum is an abstract landscape, an analogous mountain fore grounded by water.

Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect

Adopting the Chinese definition for "landscape," Predock’s design encompassed the shape of a "mountain" alongside the "water" (the lake) which matches the Chinese definition of "landscape."

From a base of ancient stream-washed Taroko marble, a faceted, jade tinted glass and cypress structure - Jade Mountain - rises from the Museum courtyard, surrounded by a spiralling and unfolding bronze-clad gallery sequence.

Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect

Water flows from Jade Mountain to the quarry-like Lotus Pond amphitheater. The “Three Friends of Winter”, Bamboo, Plum and Pine extend the courtyard garden landscape with fortuitous symbolism.

Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect

The Mountain of Longevity and the Sea of Happiness inextricably and symbiotically linked by an internal journey - an episodic scroll - traveling through Asian space and time.

The Taroko base recalls Taiwan’s geologic origins. Slowly rising, the galleries are sheathed in protective bronze skin, patinated to a color like Han chariot figures.

Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect

Digital projections internally activate the glass skin of the Jade Mountain and paint the inside of the Media Lantern, reinforcing cultural fusion and programmatic intention.
Lacquered ramps weave through the wood structure as this subliminal procession through Asian heritage culminates in a rarified mountaintop refuge, affording magnificent views over the Museum, lake and Yu Shan beyond.

Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect

The Museum exhibition experience is presented as a cinematographic unfolding of space. Similar to a viewer visually traveling through a Song dynasty Shan Shui hand scroll, museum visitors accumulate experience, aided and abetted by digital media. The viewer experiences spatial episodes, accruing a Pan-Asian perspective that continually branches, ebbs and flows. A wireless digital overlay throughout the site and all galleries, interweaves pan-Asian subtexts culminating in the glowing stone Media Lantern, a digitally painted Mogao cave.

Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect
Exploded axonometric

Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect
Site Plan

Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect
Plan

Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect
Section

Antoine Predock was declared the winner of the International Competition in November 2004.

“The National Palace Museum Southern Branch will be an approachable, celebratory community center, a fluid, living scroll, that is woven and read, felt and lived, as it travels back in time, spiralling and unfolding toward contemporary Taiwan and the future.”
Antoine Predock

Total area: 34,000 square meters
Projected completion date: 2009

Client: National Palace Museum of Taiwan
Architect: Antoine Predock

October 10, 2005

Antoine Predock Architect arcspace features





				Features
		Antoine Predock National Palace Museum ( NPM) Southern Branch Taibo City, Taiwan The Museum is an abstract landscape, an analogous mountain fore grounded by water. Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect Adopting the Chinese definition for "landscape," Predock’s design encompassed the shape of a "mountain" alongside the "water" (the lake) which matches the Chinese definition of "landscape." From a base of ancient stream-washed Taroko marble, a faceted, jade tinted glass and cypress structure - Jade Mountain - rises from the Museum courtyard, surrounded by a spiralling and unfolding bronze-clad gallery sequence. Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect Water flows from Jade Mountain to the quarry-like Lotus Pond amphitheater. The “Three Friends of Winter”, Bamboo, Plum and Pine extend the courtyard garden landscape with fortuitous symbolism. Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect The Mountain of Longevity and the Sea of Happiness inextricably and symbiotically linked by an internal journey - an episodic scroll - traveling through Asian space and time. The Taroko base recalls Taiwan’s geologic origins. Slowly rising, the galleries are sheathed in protective bronze skin, patinated to a color like Han chariot figures. Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect Digital projections internally activate the glass skin of the Jade Mountain and paint the inside of the Media Lantern, reinforcing cultural fusion and programmatic intention. Lacquered ramps weave through the wood structure as this subliminal procession through Asian heritage culminates in a rarified mountaintop refuge, affording magnificent views over the Museum, lake and Yu Shan beyond. Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect The Museum exhibition experience is presented as a cinematographic unfolding of space. Similar to a viewer visually traveling through a Song dynasty Shan Shui hand scroll, museum visitors accumulate experience, aided and abetted by digital media. The viewer experiences spatial episodes, accruing a Pan-Asian perspective that continually branches, ebbs and flows. A wireless digital overlay throughout the site and all galleries, interweaves pan-Asian subtexts culminating in the glowing stone Media Lantern, a digitally painted Mogao cave. Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect Exploded axonometric Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect Site Plan Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect Plan Image courtesy Antoine Predock Architect Section Antoine Predock was declared the winner of the International Competition in November 2004. “The National Palace Museum Southern Branch will be an approachable, celebratory community center, a fluid, living scroll, that is woven and read, felt and lived, as it travels back in time, spiralling and unfolding toward contemporary Taiwan and the future.” Antoine Predock Total area: 34,000 square meters Projected completion date: 2009 Client: National Palace Museum of Taiwan Architect: Antoine Predock October 10, 2005 Antoine Predock Architect arcspace features