Day 3650: Theater and Parade.

 

"Priorities": junk mail collage, digital.

 

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2GN2S ...

Taiwan's new $220 million arts center radically rethinks theater design 

More than a decade since it broke ground, the long-awaited Taipei Performing Arts Center opened to the public in Taiwan's capital last week. After years of construction delays and debates over a budget that has climbed to 6.7 billion New Taiwan dollars ($223 million), attention can finally turn to the dozens of productions being staged this fall -- and to a venue that is radically rethinking the way theaters operate.

 The building's striking design comprises three performance spaces that protrude dramatically from its cubic center. At 1,500 seats, the asymmetric Grand Theater is by far the largest. Yet it is the comparatively small 800-seat Globe Playhouse -- a spherical silver auditorium clad in corrugated glass -- that provides the landmark's most distinctive feature. The Dutch firm behind the project, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, has compared it to "a planet docking against the cube." In conventional venues "there is no connection" between different performance spaces, he said, adding: "To us, what was really interesting was having all these types of energies -- visitors coming in anticipation, people who are creating, people who are performing -- all together.

The theater spaces protrude from center or the building, which has non discernible front or back.

 By lifting the arts center's auditoriums above the ground on stilts, the architects freed up space beneath, inviting pedestrians onto the site. From there, a walkway nicknamed the "Public Loop" takes visitors,  not just those with show tickets, on a tour of the building, offering glimpses of performances and backstage areas through portal windows.

 Initially scheduled to open seven years ago, the project faced a series of delays before coming to a halt entirely in 2016, when the previous construction contractor filed for bankruptcy. It took more than 18 months to solve all the resulting "political issues," said Wang, who estimates that the bankruptcy alone pushed the project timeline back by around three years. And while the setbacks long predated Covid-19, the pandemic further exacerbated the wait.

The long-awaited Taipei Performing Arts Center opened to the public last week.

 "This (building is) not only considered for an elite, but is accessible for anyone," Koolhaas said, adding that he was encouraged by the ways visitors were using the site upon his recent visit to Taiwan for the theater's opening. He also expressed his "incredible relief and happiness" at seeing the building completed, some 14 years after his firm began designing it.

 

 

The island's reputation for free artistic expression, coupled with the success of international events like the Taipei Dangdai contemporary art fair, have further bolstered Taiwan's status as an emerging cultural hub. 

 

Last Sunday, August 14th, LA Nisei Community celebrated the 63rd Annual Nisei Week in the historic Little Tokyo District, Downtown Los Angeles, with a parade. Demurs Sensei was honored.

 

Thank you to Kevin Suzuki for photos.

 

 

 

A cute  2-minute video, Baby Fritz, here.

 

Just because ...

 

 

Great Blue Heron

 

Smiles for Wednesday ...

 

 

  

  

  

 

 

  

 

 

                             Thanks for coming by today