Design concept

The overall appearance looks like a stone cut into two halves, which have been connected by a glass tube suggesting anatomy (investigation), shuttle (across time-space), interweaving (linking the past and the present), continuous excavation (nonstop discovery), and diffusion (cultural heritage). The building inherits the interlacing 19° axis relationship, symbolizing the coordinate relationship between the past locations and the present cities. These axes are interwoven at the split seams on the exterior walls and the exhibition access of the museum, carrying the fun of crisscross of time-space.

Anatomy of Archaeology

Archaeology is like cutting through the ground with a scalpel for people to explore the footprints of different eras left underground. Archaeologically, each layer is known as a cultural layer, like the case of a “section” (e.g., a sectional drawing shows the associations among each space in a building) as used in architecture. By cutting a black box into two halves, the concept of a cultural layer extends. The patterns shown on the section of a building’s wall symbolize the interrelations of the each cultural layer site and imply the stratified connections formed by repeated marine transgression and regression in the STSP region.

Time-Space Shuttle

Besides symbolizing a time-space tunnel shuttling between the facades of the building, the glass square tube takes visitors from the ground level to the building’s vintage point. The Taiwan High Speed Rail(THSR) train running across the vicinity reminds visitors of the existing time-space, while the building symbolizes a trip that shuttles between the present and 5,000 years ago.

Interweaving

Test-pit is used to assess the present coordinate of a past location, interweaving the process of discovery at neither the beginning nor the end.

Continuous Excavation

The time-space tunnel leads visitors to the building’s vintage point to enter the exhibition area. Through time re-tracking and the continuous excavation of archaeology, the access of exhibition is designed within the building from high to low and from the present to the past, following the “dig-deep” principle.

Diffusion

Through the seams cutting across the building’s exterior wall, changes in the timeline diffuse bit by bit, suggesting the interrelations between the STSP sites and the museum. In the night, the light irradiating from the building becomes a proof of passing by the Southern Tainan Science Park for passengers traveling with the THSR.