Asian civilisations inspire design for new branch of Taiwan's National Palace Museum
The new branch of Taiwan’s National Palace Museum – one of the most-visited museums in the world – is nearing completion and set to open at the end of December.
The National Palace Museum (NPM) Southern Branch, which has been designed by Taiwanese architect Kris Yao of Artech, will focus on Asian art and culture.
The new museum is located in the southern county of Chiayi, reflecting wider ongoing efforts to invest in cultural offerings in regions outside the capital city of Taipei. NPM Southern Branch is set to open for trial operations on 28 December.
Yao's architectural design for the 20 hectare (50 acre) attraction is inspired by the dragon, the elephant and the horse, representing the three main civilisations of Asia – Chinese, Indian and Persia, respectively. The animals have been transformed into the streamlined and interacting structures, portraying the beauty of and communication between the three Asian cultures.
Yao has also drawn on the art of Chinese calligraphy, with the techniques of thick ink, half-dry strokes and smearing translated into the curves and shapes of the building.
NPM Southern Branch has been long awaited, with an original completion date of 2008. Setbacks stemmed from contractual disputes, followed by a typhoon in 2009 that devastated the south of the country and flooded the site with more than 10 metres (33 feet) of water.
In October 2010, the project was restarted, and has finally been built at a total cost of NT$8 billion (US$243m, €222m, £161m).
The ever-popular sister museum in Taipei, which holds a renowned collection of almost 700,000 mainly Qing dynasty artefacts and paintings, was the 10th most-visited museum in the world in 2014, attracting more than 5.4 million people. According to the Taiwanese tourism bureau, more than 70 per cent of tourists from mainland China made a trip to the National Palace Museum in 2013.
Artech is also working on the New Taipei City Museum of Art, after winning an architectural contest. The gallery building will incorporate the site’s historical, cultural and geographical features to form a sustainable vision for the proposed plan.
UAE’s first Dior Spa debuts in Dubai at Dorchester Collection’s newest hotel, The Lana
Europe's premier Evian Spa unveiled at Hôtel Royal in France
Clinique La Prairie unveils health resort in China after two-year project
GoCo Health Innovation City in Sweden plans to lead the world in delivering wellness and new science
Four Seasons announces luxury wellness resort and residences at Amaala
Aman sister brand Janu debuts in Tokyo with four-floor urban wellness retreat
€38m geothermal spa and leisure centre to revitalise Croatian city of Bjelovar
Two Santani eco-friendly wellness resorts coming to Oman, partnered with Omran Group
Kerzner shows confidence in its Siro wellness hotel concept, revealing plans to open 100
Ritz-Carlton, Portland unveils skyline spa inspired by unfolding petals of a rose
Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners are just one of the names behind The Emory hotel London and Surrenne private members club
Peninsula Hot Springs unveils AUS$11.7m sister site in Australian outback
IWBI creates WELL for residential programme to inspire healthy living environments
Conrad Orlando unveils water-inspired spa oasis amid billion-dollar Evermore Resort complex
Studio A+ realises striking urban hot springs retreat in China's Shanxi Province
Populous reveals plans for major e-sports arena in Saudi Arabia
Wake The Tiger launches new 1,000sq m expansion
Othership CEO envisions its urban bathhouses in every city in North America
Merlin teams up with Hasbro and Lego to create Peppa Pig experiences
SHA Wellness unveils highly-anticipated Mexico outpost
One&Only One Za’abeel opens in Dubai featuring striking design by Nikken Sekkei
Luxury spa hotel, Calcot Manor, creates new Grain Store health club
'World's largest' indoor ski centre by 10 Design slated to open in 2025
Murrayshall Country Estate awarded planning permission for multi-million-pound spa and leisure centre
Aman's Janu hotel by Pelli Clarke & Partners will have 4,000sq m of wellness space
Therme Group confirms Incheon Golden Harbor location for South Korean wellbeing resort
Universal Studios eyes the UK for first European resort
King of Bhutan unveils masterplan for Mindfulness City, designed by BIG, Arup and Cistri
Rural locations are the next frontier for expansion for the health club sector
Tonik Associates designs new suburban model for high-end Third Space health and wellness club
Across Denmark, a charity is turning industrial buildings into centres for street sport and art. As the concept prepares to go global, we speak to the people making it happen
Ben Channon has written Happy by Design, a new book about how architecture affects our mental health. He explains how we can all be happier at home
From parks designed to mitigate the effects of flooding to warming huts for one of the world’s coldest cities, these projects have been designed for increasingly extreme climates