Qualla: National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts

National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MiNe, CC BY 2.0. The pipe organ has 9,085 pipes. It is the largest in Asia, built by the century-old German firm Johannes Klais Orgelbau, and it sits inside a concert hall that seats 1,981 people, which is itself inside a building that The Guardian called "the biggest arts venue on Earth." The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts -- known locally as Weiwuying -- opened in October 2018 on the site of a former military training base in Fengshan District. Its white, wave-shaped roof stretches across 35,000 square meters, sheltering four performance halls and an outdoor theater that can accommodate 30,000 people. TIME Magazine named it one of the World's Greatest Places in 2019. The numbers are staggering. The story behind them is even more compelling.

Image: MiNe | CC BY 2.0

National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts: From Drill Ground to Concert Hall

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Noroi, CC BY-SA 4.0. The land beneath Weiwuying has known many purposes. During the Qing dynasty and the Japanese colonial period, the site served as a military recruitment and training base in southern Taiwan. After the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan, the camp continued in military use until 1979, w...

Image: Noroi | CC BY-SA 4.0

National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts: A Dutch Architect and Kaohsiung's Banyans

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rybloo, CC BY-SA 3.0. Dutch architect Francine Houben of the firm Mecanoo, which won the design competition in 2007, drew her primary inspiration from an unexpected source: the banyan tree groves that still shade parts of the Weiwuying park. Banyans spread horizontally, their canopies creating vast sh...

Image: Rybloo | CC BY-SA 3.0

National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts: Four Halls, One Vision

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sean Chiu, CC BY-SA 4.0. Beneath the canopy, four distinct halls serve different artistic needs. The Opera House, with 2,236 seats arranged in a horseshoe, was the first venue in Taiwan to install a mainframe computer for staging operations. Its seats are upholstered in shades of red and purple patterned...

Image: Sean Chiu | CC BY-SA 4.0

National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts: Southern Taiwan's Cultural Anchor

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit yunlin2003 from Yunlin County, Taiwan, the R.O.C., CC BY-SA 2.0. Before Weiwuying, Taiwan's major performing arts venues were concentrated in the north, principally in Taipei. The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts changed that equation, giving southern Taiwan its first national-level performance venue and shifting the cultural center of g...

Image: yunlin2003 from Yunlin County, Taiwan, the R.O.C. | CC BY-SA 2.0