A performing arts centre for whom? Rethinking the architect as negotiator of urban imaginaries

Abstract

In this study, we interpret architecture not as a single imaginary stemming from architects and architectural patrons, but as the result of negotiating urban politics and urban imaginaries between different stakeholders, including policymakers, citizens, and developers. We focus in particular on the role of architects within this process as mediators between different stakeholders, who nevertheless have their own specific agenda to pursue. We draw on an empirical case of the Taipei Performing Arts Centre, a cultural flagship project built in Taiwan and designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Through a review of internal documents, interviews, and content analysis on archival data, we expose the controversy over the integration of the historical ‘low culture’ local food market into the design for the new ‘high culture’ Performing Arts Centre. Although the architects imagined and pursued the integration of the new centre into the existing local culture, both policymakers and local citizens contested this attempt. The study concludes that, despite claims from both policymakers and architects of representing ‘the people’, there were often misunderstandings, deliberate or otherwise, regarding the needs of ‘the people’ or indeed of who ‘the people’ are.