Taipei Fine Arts Museum Children‘s Art Eduation Center

The Open Paperclip

The Children’s Art Education Center employs the architectural vocabulary of a “paperclip.” Within the existing spatial framework of TFAM – an interlocking matrix of solid strips and empty “white box” spaces – the new center forms an unbroken ribbon, shaped like an “open paperclip,” transforming what were originally independent areas into an open, continuous space accommodating a diversity of forms and allowing flexible use.

Using continuously shifting forms – circling and folding, passing through one another, extending, rising and falling – to ingeniously demarcate various areas and to reinforce the connections between them, giving the Children’s Art Education Center a rich, fascinating design. It not only integrates different functions and spaces, but also achieves a sense of coordination with the overall space of the museum and a sense of coherence with its lines of motion.

The design for this Center also reflects how TFAM has transformed the periphery into the core, based on the practical conditions of the space available, incorporating the latest ideas on contemporary art education and achieving an innovative, faultlessly planned space. The most exciting aspect of these new facilities is the new mode of visitor participation they introduce, stirring up new possibilities for experiencing an art museum.