NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM
TAIWAN
PROFESSOR BOYLE HUANG
architect
PROVINCIAL GOVT. OF TAIWAN
developers
BUREAU OF PUBLIC WORKS
contractors
A MODERN
example of
classical Chinese palace-style architecture is Taiwan's National Palace Museum which was completed last year at Waishuanghsi, a quiet suburb north- east of Taipei.
The museum, housing priceless col- lections of Chinese arts. has a beautiful setting. It stands on sloping terrain with a panoramic view of the Double-Brook valley to the south.
The upper portion of the site, part of a reservoir area, contains big stones and old dragon-eye trees and suggests many interesting possibilities in landscape design, while the lower part is a tree-less rice paddy.
The gently sloping site is between
20 and 60 metres above sea level. It
is bounded on the north by a cliff rising to 150 metres, on the east and west by valley streams and on the south by a highway. The geological The geological composition is sandstone in the vicinity of the site and andesite near the rising cliff, where a storage tunnel has been located. Both types of rock are hard and stable enough to provide solid foundations.
Only about one sixth of the site has been developed, the remainder being left in its natural state or for future recreational purposes.
Motor traffic and pedestrians are completly separated. A one-way road system about one kilometre long enters from the south of the site, run- ning up by a creek to the museum
Side view of the National Palace Museum
proper and down again to the west of the small hill.
Buses stop at the south entrance and pedestrians walk through a triple- arch doorway to enter the enclosed central mall which is bordered by several rows of big trees. Below the museum is a huge retaining wall and a grand stairway leading to the upper
terrace.
Design
Since one half of the US$1,250,000 cost of the project was contributed by U.S. aid, an American educated pro- fessor of architecture was chosen as architect Professor Boyle Huang
of the National Taiwan University.
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Section
Far East Architect & Builder February, 1966
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