33,000 pings (equiv. to 109091 square meters) of land was acquired during the Japanese colonial period at the “Daan 12 jia” Administration Zone, for the establishment of the Industrial Research Institute. The Taiwan Governor-General’s Office prioritized the relocation of existing lab equipment, so procurement of the land and the building of Number 2 Hall (now C-LAB Old Office Building) became key projects in its Phase 1 Plan. The Building Construction Section of the Taiwan Governor-General’s Office was commissioned to build Number 2 Hall, with aspirations of building the largest scientific facility on the island and have it completed by 1944.

Front elevation and main entrance of Number 2 Hall in the early days of Taiwan’s retrocession. Photo: LIFE Magazine

From 1948 to 1949, the Government of the R.O.C. and personnel relocated to Taiwan, and with its priority towards national defense reassigned Industrial Research Institute premises as MND Ren-ai Base and later as Air Force Command Headquarters.

Air Force Command Headquarters was formally set up on this site in 1949 by the Ministry of National Defense, serving as the top commanding organization of air defense and combat in Taiwan. Research data from 1951 show that the organizational units of Air Force Command Headquarters included General Headquarters, Consul’s Office, Political Office, Supervisory Office, Statistics Office, Liaison Office, the First to Fifth Ministries, as well as 9 Corps of Adjutant, Air Defense, Communications, Meteorology, Finance, Medical Affairs, Construction, Military Justice, and General Services. Restructuring of the organizational hierarchy in later times resulted in a markedly different structure of the R.O.C. Air Force today.

Air Force Command Headquarters, MND in 1966. Photo: Air Force Command Headquarters, MND.

In 2012, Air Force Command Headquarters, MND was relocated to Zhong Yong Military Base in the Dazhi area of Zhongshan District, Taipei City. The Executive Yuan proceeded to revitalize the newly vacated site and named it “Taiwan Air Force Innovation Base” in 2015. The base was run by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to invite organizations and groups across a variety of disciplines to participate in programs of youth entrepreneurship and social innovation. 

The city government designated the Air Force Command Headquarters (the former Industrial Research Institute of the Taiwan Governor-General’s Office) as a monument and listed ten constructions as historic buildings.

In 2017, the Ministry of Culture tasked the “Culture Lab Preparatory Group” with transforming 7.15 hectares of land and buildings into a platform for future development of contemporary culture in Taiwan. Its mission is to establish the ecological and support systems necessary in the evolution of the site from a program of strategic military importance to that of culture.

Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab was initiated in 2018 by the Taiwan Living Arts Foundation of the Ministry of Culture. Striving to become a new type of art and cultural organization, C-LAB explores the possible intersections of art, culture, technology, and society beyond the routine. C-LAB brings the public closer to the campus by creating rich and diversified experiences. Internationally, it proactively connects and collaborates with institutions from home and abroad while devoting itself to interorganizational and cross-domain exchanges/development in terms of art, technology, and research via talent cultivation, co-creation, R&D, exhibitions and performances.

C-LAB established the Contemporary Art Platform since the initiation. This platform encourages experiments in creative concept, production techniques, presentation exploration. It also encourages artists to branch out of traditional venues into alternative, unconventional spaces, including creative experiments done in cyberspace. Additionally, the Contemporary Art Platform actively serves as matchmaker between creative and technical talents, encouraging interdisciplinary studies. Focusing on the critical nature of contemporary art, it explores ways to incorporate art into social practice, with the aim of producing innovative value. It emphasizes the technical integration of databases and encourages the use of experimental methods to examine the process of social development and reengineer existing historical archives.

Working with the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics / Music (IRCAM) of the Pompidu Center in France, the Taiwan Sound Lab is established at C-LAB, with art, science, and technology embedded at its core to promote technology transfers, musical composition, technical training, mutual site visits, research curriculum, co-production, and co-presentation.

The C-LAB Technology Media Platform promotes interdisciplinary combination of culture and technology with focuses on music and sound culture, future audiovisual media, bio art, artificial intelligence, electronic communications, system integration, and digital humanities. It successively sets up cyber-physical integrated laboratories, brings professionals and innovative R&D energy together, matches creators and industries, supports forward-looking media experimental projects in consonance with market trends, connects with the international technological network for collaborations and exchanges, and schemes out future trajectories for the development of technology media.

The Taipei City Government had announced the addition of the Political Warfare Building to the main body of the previously designated municipal monument of the Air Force Command Headquarters ( the former Taiwan Governor-General’s Industrial Research Institute), along with a revised collection of 15 ancillary facilities of the monument (including the historic buildings designated in 2015). An area of approximately 46,500 square meters at the southern end of the campus was declared the vicinity spaces of the monument.

Officially opened in 2022, the Creative Base for Animators is located in C-LAB’s Dormitory A. In the three-story building features it Motion Capture Studio, classrooms, Art Space, and offices, all spaces tailor-made for flexible use during every stage of the creative process from conception to production and distribution. In addition, C-LAB collaborates with the Animation & Visual Effects Association in providing courses and resources such as legal consulting and investor matchmaking for animation talents and industries, and with the assistance of the National Center for High-performance Computing offers the software and techniques of real-time rendering and animation special effects, building up a creative base for incubating animation industry capacity.

In 2022, the Taiwan Living Arts Foundation which is the operating organization of C-LAB was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture to administrate the Hualien Cultural and Creative Industries Park.

The Technology Media Platform has featured two labs of Taiwan Sound Lab and Future Vision Lab with a view to innovating audiovisual content.

In 2023, the Taiwan Living Arts Foundation which is the operating organization of C-LAB was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture to administrate the Chiayi Cultural and Creative Industries Park.

The Taiwan Living Arts Foundation has been renovating and reorganizing the spaces while improving the environments on the campus based on the three purposes of contemporary art, technology media, and social innovation. In 2024, the Air Force Command Headquarters (the former Industrial Research Institute of the Taiwan Governor-General’s Office) including the Old Office Building and Political Warfare Building was designated as a national monument by the Ministry of Culture. The foundation executes the work of the monument restoration and revitalization project in compliance with the Ministry of Culture, endeavoring to incubate the innovative cultural ecosystem and host public cultural events. In addition, it gradually provides more residency spaces for art and cultural organizations/groups and builds up an industrial cluster, encouraging co-creation and co-inspiration among diversified cultures on the campus.