Beyond Danjiang Bridge: Zaha Hadid's Taichung Guggenheim Museum Model Preserved
While Zaha Hadid's Danjiang Bridge is set to open, the model of her unbuilt Taichung Guggenheim Museum has been restored, showcasing her fluid design philosophy and preserving her legacy.
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- 📰 Published: May 7, 2026 at 12:56
- 🔍 Collected: May 7, 2026 at 13:01 (5 min after Published)
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Central News Agency
Danjiang Bridge Ultimate Aesthetics 6 (Central News Agency reporter Zhao Li-yan, Taichung 7th) The Danjiang Bridge, a work by the "Queen of Curves" architect Zaha Hadid, is expected to open on the 12th. Meanwhile, her design for the Taichung Guggenheim Museum, though ultimately unbuilt, has had its existing model restored, still exhibiting fluid curves like a gracefully dancing figure.
The Danjiang Bridge, the world's largest single-tower asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge, is located at the mouth of the Tamsui River. It integrates architectural art and engineering technology, conveying the concept of praying for Taiwan with the imagery of hands clasped together. Considering the varying depths of the rock formations at the Tamsui River mouth, the surrounding environment, and the harmony with the sunset scenery, the bridge tower is positioned towards the Tamsui side, allowing the Tamsui sunset and Guanyin Mountain scenery to complement each other.
In addition to the Danjiang Bridge, Zaha Hadid, the first female recipient of the "Pritzker Architecture Prize," also had the opportunity to leave a masterpiece in Taichung with the Guggenheim Museum. Although it ultimately remained an unfulfilled ambition, the architectural model has been preserved to this day for future generations to imagine.
In 2003, the Guggenheim Foundation collaborated with the Taichung City Government, inviting Zaha Hadid to design the Taichung Guggenheim Museum. At that time, the Guggenheim delegation and Zaha Hadid unveiled the model at the Taichung City Council. Unlike the square shapes of typical buildings, the Taichung Guggenheim Museum's elongated and three-dimensional form extended north and south, possessing a highly ethereal and dynamic quality.
Huang Guo-rong, then Deputy Mayor of Taichung City and responsible for related affairs, recalled that Zaha Hadid, who was meticulous and introverted, spoke little during her site visit to Taichung. Her design style was quite avant-garde at the time.
The Taichung Guggenheim Museum project was terminated due to a lack of funding, and the model could not be transformed into a physical building. More than 20 years later, the model was damaged by age. The Taichung City Government commissioned Wei Yong-cheng, director of Winner Interior Design, to oversee its restoration.
Wei Yong-cheng found the model's structure fragile and some details lost, with nearly 40% damage. Coupled with the lack of complete drawings to follow, the restoration difficulty increased. He delved into Zaha Hadid's life experiences and portfolio to understand her design logic when conceiving the Taichung Guggenheim Museum.
Through reading, Wei Yong-cheng learned that Zaha Hadid was born in Iraq in 1950. Her father was a cabinet minister, and her mother was an artist. Her privileged upbringing nurtured boundless imagination, allowing her to freely express her creativity, unconstrained by frameworks, using fluid curves to create the dynamic sense of her buildings.
Wei Yong-cheng said that Zaha Hadid was known as the "creator of 89 degrees," with very few 90-degree angles in her works. The main body and access ramps of the Taichung Guggenheim Museum were all presented with curved surfaces, and the streamlined elements were key to the building's dynamism.
"Restoring large curved surfaces was extremely difficult, it was hell!" Wei Yong-cheng used to restore his own models, mainly with paper, completing them within a week. But restoring a master's work took over two months.
Wei Yong-cheng consulted model experts and tried various methods. He attempted 3D printing but failed to achieve the thinness of the curved surfaces; he used acrylic sheets as material, borrowed equipment from a friend's sand-casting factory, but the high heat melted the acrylic; he switched to a boiling method, but the material's softening degree made it impossible to shape.
Wei Yong-cheng finally adopted a temperature-controlled heat gun. Holding one end of the acrylic sheet with pliers, he carefully heated it with one hand while slowly bending the sheet with the other. Once the curved surface was formed, he immediately cooled it with cold water to set the shape.
"Bending too fast would break the sheet, too slow and the curvature wouldn't be enough," Wei Yong-cheng gestured with his palm to illustrate the changes in curves: left, right, left, then a sudden sharp turn. Creating the curved surfaces took over half a month, and several bags of failed materials were accumulated.
Huang Guo-rong recalled that a distinctive feature of the Taichung Guggenheim Museum was its movable galleries. Through different movements, it could create ever-changing fantastical scenes inside the building and display different forms outside, interacting with the surrounding urban landscape. The openable skylights, depending on the weather and exhibition content, would be opened or closed, creating variations in indoor lighting.
Although the model cannot reveal the interior space, Wei Yong-cheng felt the rhythm embedded in the architecture during his meticulous work. "The beauty and maturity of the curves surpass Zaha Hadid's previous works," Wei Yong-cheng said. The extended curved surfaces of the building's facade guide external pedestrian and vehicle flow, drawing them into the building along the lines and then flowing out again, demonstrating power and beauty through fluid curves.
Huang Guo-rong pointed to the Taichung City Government's new municipal center, saying that at the time, 11 locations were surveyed, and the Taichung Guggenheim Museum was ultimately chosen for the current municipal center site. This was because the Guggenheim Foundation highly valued the location, requiring it to be easily accessible, and also considered that the MRT would pass through the intersection of Taiwan Boulevard and Wenxin Road.
Huang Guo-rong said that initially, only the Taichung Guggenheim Museum was planned. Former Taichung Mayor Hu Zhi-qiang proposed, with the agreement of the Guggenheim Foundation, to also plan the Taichung City Government, Taichung City Council, and National Taichung Theater, inviting three Pritzker Architecture Prize winners to design them, forming a "Guggenheim Park" of four buildings.
However, Zaha Hadid passed away in 2016, and the Guggenheim Museum could not become a landmark in Taichung. Only the model, currently housed in the Taichung City Government, extends the designer's ideas and spirit. Zaha Hadid's "paper dance" for Taichung has become another "what if it had been built" imagination for future generations admiring the Danjiang Bridge. (Editor: Li Ming-zong) 1150507
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Danjiang Bridge Ultimate Aesthetics 6 (Central News Agency reporter Zhao Li-yan, Taichung 7th) The Danjiang Bridge, a work by the "Queen of Curves" architect Zaha Hadid, is expected to open on the 12th. Meanwhile, her design for the Taichung Guggenheim Museum, though ultimately unbuilt, has had its existing model restored, still exhibiting fluid curves like a gracefully dancing figure.
The Danjiang Bridge, the world's largest single-tower asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge, is located at the mouth of the Tamsui River. It integrates architectural art and engineering technology, conveying the concept of praying for Taiwan with the imagery of hands clasped together. Considering the varying depths of the rock formations at the Tamsui River mouth, the surrounding environment, and the harmony with the sunset scenery, the bridge tower is positioned towards the Tamsui side, allowing the Tamsui sunset and Guanyin Mountain scenery to complement each other.
In addition to the Danjiang Bridge, Zaha Hadid, the first female recipient of the "Pritzker Architecture Prize," also had the opportunity to leave a masterpiece in Taichung with the Guggenheim Museum. Although it ultimately remained an unfulfilled ambition, the architectural model has been preserved to this day for future generations to imagine.
In 2003, the Guggenheim Foundation collaborated with the Taichung City Government, inviting Zaha Hadid to design the Taichung Guggenheim Museum. At that time, the Guggenheim delegation and Zaha Hadid unveiled the model at the Taichung City Council. Unlike the square shapes of typical buildings, the Taichung Guggenheim Museum's elongated and three-dimensional form extended north and south, possessing a highly ethereal and dynamic quality.
Huang Guo-rong, then Deputy Mayor of Taichung City and responsible for related affairs, recalled that Zaha Hadid, who was meticulous and introverted, spoke little during her site visit to Taichung. Her design style was quite avant-garde at the time.
The Taichung Guggenheim Museum project was terminated due to a lack of funding, and the model could not be transformed into a physical building. More than 20 years later, the model was damaged by age. The Taichung City Government commissioned Wei Yong-cheng, director of Winner Interior Design, to oversee its restoration.
Wei Yong-cheng found the model's structure fragile and some details lost, with nearly 40% damage. Coupled with the lack of complete drawings to follow, the restoration difficulty increased. He delved into Zaha Hadid's life experiences and portfolio to understand her design logic when conceiving the Taichung Guggenheim Museum.
Through reading, Wei Yong-cheng learned that Zaha Hadid was born in Iraq in 1950. Her father was a cabinet minister, and her mother was an artist. Her privileged upbringing nurtured boundless imagination, allowing her to freely express her creativity, unconstrained by frameworks, using fluid curves to create the dynamic sense of her buildings.
Wei Yong-cheng said that Zaha Hadid was known as the "creator of 89 degrees," with very few 90-degree angles in her works. The main body and access ramps of the Taichung Guggenheim Museum were all presented with curved surfaces, and the streamlined elements were key to the building's dynamism.
"Restoring large curved surfaces was extremely difficult, it was hell!" Wei Yong-cheng used to restore his own models, mainly with paper, completing them within a week. But restoring a master's work took over two months.
Wei Yong-cheng consulted model experts and tried various methods. He attempted 3D printing but failed to achieve the thinness of the curved surfaces; he used acrylic sheets as material, borrowed equipment from a friend's sand-casting factory, but the high heat melted the acrylic; he switched to a boiling method, but the material's softening degree made it impossible to shape.
Wei Yong-cheng finally adopted a temperature-controlled heat gun. Holding one end of the acrylic sheet with pliers, he carefully heated it with one hand while slowly bending the sheet with the other. Once the curved surface was formed, he immediately cooled it with cold water to set the shape.
"Bending too fast would break the sheet, too slow and the curvature wouldn't be enough," Wei Yong-cheng gestured with his palm to illustrate the changes in curves: left, right, left, then a sudden sharp turn. Creating the curved surfaces took over half a month, and several bags of failed materials were accumulated.
Huang Guo-rong recalled that a distinctive feature of the Taichung Guggenheim Museum was its movable galleries. Through different movements, it could create ever-changing fantastical scenes inside the building and display different forms outside, interacting with the surrounding urban landscape. The openable skylights, depending on the weather and exhibition content, would be opened or closed, creating variations in indoor lighting.
Although the model cannot reveal the interior space, Wei Yong-cheng felt the rhythm embedded in the architecture during his meticulous work. "The beauty and maturity of the curves surpass Zaha Hadid's previous works," Wei Yong-cheng said. The extended curved surfaces of the building's facade guide external pedestrian and vehicle flow, drawing them into the building along the lines and then flowing out again, demonstrating power and beauty through fluid curves.
Huang Guo-rong pointed to the Taichung City Government's new municipal center, saying that at the time, 11 locations were surveyed, and the Taichung Guggenheim Museum was ultimately chosen for the current municipal center site. This was because the Guggenheim Foundation highly valued the location, requiring it to be easily accessible, and also considered that the MRT would pass through the intersection of Taiwan Boulevard and Wenxin Road.
Huang Guo-rong said that initially, only the Taichung Guggenheim Museum was planned. Former Taichung Mayor Hu Zhi-qiang proposed, with the agreement of the Guggenheim Foundation, to also plan the Taichung City Government, Taichung City Council, and National Taichung Theater, inviting three Pritzker Architecture Prize winners to design them, forming a "Guggenheim Park" of four buildings.
However, Zaha Hadid passed away in 2016, and the Guggenheim Museum could not become a landmark in Taichung. Only the model, currently housed in the Taichung City Government, extends the designer's ideas and spirit. Zaha Hadid's "paper dance" for Taichung has become another "what if it had been built" imagination for future generations admiring the Danjiang Bridge. (Editor: Li Ming-zong) 1150507
Choose to stand with the facts, every sponsorship you make is a force to protect press freedom.
Download the Central News Agency "First-hand News" APP to stay updated with the latest news.
The text, images, and audio-visual content on this website may not be reproduced, publicly broadcast, or publicly transmitted and used without authorization.