Wooden Wonders: MVRDV’s wooden pavilion and exhibition celebrates the past, present, and future of timber craft in Chiayi

For the 321st anniversary celebrations of the founding of Chiayi City in Taiwan, MVRDV has completed a temporary timber pavilion housing an exhibition on manufacture, craft, and construction with wood. Located across from Chiayi’s city hall, the Wooden Wonders pavilion encloses a square courtyard, with the shape of its perimeter structure informed by deep research into the city’s timber construction heritage. The project will be on display throughout Chiayi’s anniversary celebrations, from December 12–28, providing a space for residents to gather, learn about the city’s heritage and discuss the city’s “timber future”.

Thanks to its position near to the dense forests of Taiwan’s mountainous heart, the timber industry was crucial to Chiayi’s historical development, and the city produced a range of wooden products, from toys and furniture to buildings. Today, the forests that once enabled this industry are now protected, and the knowledge and skills that created this culture have been forgotten by many of the residents. Yet there are still over 6,000 timber buildings remaining in the city – a heritage which the city government has recently started to recognise, protect, and restore.

As part of Chiayi’s anniversary celebrations, the municipality therefore invited MVRDV to develop a pavilion and exhibition that explores the city’s relationship with wood, from celebrating the area’s natural forests to showcasing the possibilities of modern timber construction. In the context of Taiwan – where many people see timber as a less reputable or reliable construction material, and seismic regulations make the transformation of existing buildings rare – the pavilion’s focus on sustainability and heritage preservation takes a bold stance.

“The story of timber construction in Chiayi really mirrors how attitudes to timber have changed globally”, says MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs. “Once a pragmatic and widely available construction material, timber became ‘old-fashioned’ when materials such as concrete and steel became cheaper and more efficient. Yet nowadays, the climate crisis forces us to look from a different angle: wood stores carbon, while concrete and steel release huge quantities of it into the atmosphere; meanwhile decades of research and innovation have made modern buildings increasingly viable with engineered timber techniques. Now is a perfect moment to talk about timber again.”

For the design of the pavilion, MVRDV began with an architectural study of the existing timber buildings of Chiayi. What they found was an eclectic mix: timber buildings were represented in a wide variety of time periods and styles; nevertheless, the design team did identify a number of common features that distinguished Chiayi’s timber architecture, such as diagonal cuts to emphasise street corners, and elaborate rooflines resulting from ornamental crowns and decorative façade elements.

These elements are echoed in the pavilion design, with its four chamfered corners echoing the city’s corner cafés and restaurants, while each side of the pavilion is highlighted by a roofline inspired by notable wooden buildings such as a museum and police station. Three of these sides form gateways towards the courtyard, with the pastel colours of their interiors – a detail that also references the colours of the original buildings they represent – welcoming visitors into this urban living room.

The exhibition occupies the perimeter space around this courtyard, split into five sections. One of these sections is dedicated to the forest, with showing how timber is grown and harvested in an exhibit that engages all five senses. A second is known as the workshop, celebrating the historic craftsmanship of Chiayi.

The remaining three sections are dedicated to Chiayi’s potential as Taiwan’s “Wood Capital”. The exhibition draws parallels to regions all around the world, from Norway to New Zealand, showing how other places developed their wood traditions, and how they have adapted to modern conditions to maintain this culture up until today. In the main hall – a two-storey space that takes up the northern side of the pavilion – the exhibition presents Chiayi’s timber future, inviting visitors to imagine what life could be like with a reinvigorated wood culture, and to make suggestions for the city’s future development.

With its courtyard space – where a light show will be projected onto the pavilion’s façade every evening – and spacious main hall, the Wooden Wonders pavilion will serve as a key gathering space during the city’s anniversary celebrations. As such, it will host a series of events for the public, including forums featuring MVRDVs Partner Jan Knikker and Head of Taiwan Hui Hsin Liao alongside Chiayi’s Director of the Urban Development Huai-chun Hsu, and Dean of the College of Arts and Design at Nanhua University Cheng-che Chen. There will also be three lectures delivered by MVRDV project leader Veronica Della Ventura and Architect Herng Tzou. For full details of the pavilion’s event schedule see here.

See more of the Wooden Wonders pavilion and exhibition here.