THE BEAUTIFUL BOOK - a collaboration with Mr Yap Hong Ngee

a competition entry for the Taichung Museum of Fine Arts

Our collaboration with Mr Yap Hong Ngee was borne out of our search for the appropriate cultural context to "place" a fine arts collection and library for Taichung, Taiwan. Sifting through his travel sketchbooks during a conversation, it became apparent that the "open book" could serve as an appropriate representation for the project's aspirations whilst fulfilling its programmatic requirements.

Mr Yap's ink-brush paintings of abstracted spaces populated with flora and fauna provided the vocabulary for our spatial intentions of a building that is an open repository of Taichung's art and written culture. His "dream time" writings and sketches describe the feelings and experiences available to all who will visit the building, from exhibition halls, sun-lit cores to viewing galleries overlooking the parks around.