National Taichung Theater Introduction
Taichung National Theater features avant-garde design based on the concept of "Sound Cave," utilizing unique designs such as curved walls, openings, and pipe-like structures. The entire building is completely support-free and has no right-angled walls, subverting traditional architectural concepts. After years of construction, a theater that coexists with people and nature is about to be born in Taichung. The flowing curves quietly incubate everyone's expectations; the glass curtain reflects the blue sky, while the surrounding green spaces and flowing water create an urban paradise. The façade of the "Sound Cave" resembles a curved wine vessel, and audiences can become intoxicated by the stunning performances, marveling at the endless possibilities of art. The surfaces of the building are adorned with multiple cylindrical windows that, when illuminated at night, radiate elegance and warmth. This place is a cradle for performing arts, a space for people to relax and acquire new knowledge, and a starting point for revitalizing the cultural life of Central Taiwan. This is the Taichung National Theater. Beautiful things require ample preparation, especially for a venue that internalizes art and culture into life. In 1992, the Education Department of the Taiwan Provincial Government planned the "National Taichung Music and Arts Center," which later changed to "National Concert Hall," aiming to build an internationally standard performing arts center for Taiwan. After meticulous revisions to the venue's scale and name, in 2005, the construction project of the "Taichung Metropolitan Opera House" was officially approved by the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Executive Yuan (now the Ministry of Culture). With the construction project established, the building design was decided through an international competition involving architectural teams from 13 countries (32 architects) including Taiwan, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, with Japanese architect Toyo Ito emerging as the winner. With a clear outline for the venue's architecture, long-term preparations had already accumulated sufficient energy, establishing the operational direction of the opera house as an international-class venue in Taiwan. From the initial design to the completion of the building, the opera house has undergone the tempering and severe testing of time. During the competition phase, Toyo Ito employed avant-garde design perspectives, challenging existing modes of thought and pre-conceiving the building's outline, then integrating the stage within the curved walls according to performance characteristics. The second phase focused on spatial efficiency, examining feasible design structures and innovatively connecting the large theater with the medium theater's foyer. Finally, based on the internal visual and auditory experiences of the opera house, the circulation paths were fine-tuned, returning to the interaction between "people" and space, emphasizing the artistic energy that resonates in the "Sound Cave." The laughter, sadness, and emotions that performing arts aim to convey thus gain depth and amplification. The Taichung National Theater features 58 curved walls, each composed of 1,372 small units, each of which must be custom-made, making mass production impossible. This is a grand project that requires precise calculations. Due to the immense difficulty of constructing the Taichung National Theater, it has been dubbed by the architectural community as "the world's hardest building to construct," and the "curved wall" construction method has received a world patent certification. The interior of the Taichung National Theater includes a large theater (2,007 seats), a medium theater (794 seats), a small theater (200 seats), as well as an underground parking lot and related public spaces, with the surrounding landscape design also comprehensively planned around the Sound Cave concept. Within the opera house, the 2,014 seats each offer the same auditory feast, without any visually obstructed views; every seat has a clear sight of the stage. Spaces resembling treehouses or caves do not lead people back to the past but use modern technology and materials to liberate hardened and cold environments, transforming the rigid contours of the city into a soft domain filled with life. The flowing waters and open imagery of the surrounding gardens break down the binary distinctions between stage and audience, indoor and outdoor, reacquainting modern people with the environmental sensory experiences that have gradually been lost, creating more possibilities for dialogue among people, architecture, and art. The "greatness" of architecture lies not in the amount of steel, concrete, and glass curtains used to construct giant outlines. In the past, people blindly pursued the highest and grandest buildings to prove humanity's dominance over nature; today, they seek to find laws of coexistence with nature and the environment, returning to the fundamentals of life—about the feelings of "people." Everyone longs to tell stories, to listen to music, to dance with rhythmic steps, to appreciate the unmatched glamour of traditional arts; these are what the Taichung National Theater prides itself on as its "greatness." Coexisting with nature, the flowing space gently embraces human culture and art. The curved walls, reminiscent of bones, and the penetrating glass curtain naturally allow sunlight to pour in, and the wind flows easily; at night, these openings radiate warm halos, giving birth to the rhythm and life of the Taichung National Theater. Additionally, there is a green park at the Taichung National Theater, where even the drainage ditches in the park extend into the building, breaking down the boundaries between indoors and outdoors.
