(All Photos Are Provided by Taichung City Government © All rights reserved)
Location
Taichung (in middle Taiwan)
Architect
Toyo Ito & Associates Architects, Japan
Domino Architects & Associates, Taiwan
Background Information
Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, with an eye on the cultivation of theatre professionals and preservation of traditional culture, is a national level performing arts center with international scale. The project had attracted 33 remarkable architects from 12 countries to participate in international competition. Toyo Ito, the renowned Japanese architect, ultimately won the First Prize of the competition and is delegated to supervise the construction of the structure which adopts his own winning design.
Capacity
Grand Theater: 2011 seats
Play House: 800 seats
Experimental Theater: 200 seats
Rehearsal Studios
Design Concept
Taichung Metropolitan Opera House is characteristic of its unique design concepts such as the Sound Cave, the Original Arc Wall Structure System and the Special Construction Techniques, etc. These original innovations have made Taichung Metropolitan Opera House the focus of the world. In 2007, Taichung Metropolitan Opera House was nominated to be one of the nine landmarks in the world by Reuters, along with the Freedom Tower in New York, the Absolute Towers in Toronto, the Hex Towers in Mexico City and the Centre Pompidou-Metz in France.
Future Prospects
Taichung Metropolitan Opera House is expected to be one of the most prominent opera houses in the world and will provide an excellent performance space for both the Taiwanese and international performing groups to accommodate various performances such as musical, drama, traditional opera and children theatre etc. Taichung Metropolitan Opera House will become the new landmark of the world theatres and facilitate Taichung City as the cultural capital.
