MOCA Taipei occupies the handsome 1921 red-brick building that served first as a Japanese-era elementary school and then as Taipei's city hall until the government moved to Xinyi. Since 2001 it has been the city's dedicated contemporary art museum, with a programme of changing exhibitions strong on new media, design and Asian contemporary work.
The building itself — symmetrical, with a central clock tower — is one of the best surviving pieces of colonial civic architecture in the city. It sits just north of Taipei Main Station, an easy combination with the shopping and cafes of the Zhongshan district.