The New Paradiso is a new entertainment, dining and retail destination in Hualien, Taiwan. Pentagram has designed a colorful graphic façade for the complex that is composed of ceramic tiles and wraps around all four sides of the building. Measuring almost 100,000 sq ft, the design has been recognized as the world’s largest ceramic tile mural by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Pentagram worked closely with the developer, Taiwan Land Development Corporation (TLDC), on the project. The New Paradiso encompasses a multiplex and IMAX cinema, an AR/VR game hall, the world’s longest indoor slide, a food hall, and shopping, including the biggest Supreme store in Taiwan. The complex also features the first Starbucks in the Asia-Pacific, designed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma using 29 shipping containers. 

The challenge for the Pentagram team was creating a mural that would make the complex a Hualien landmark, capture the vibrancy of the development, and energize its surroundings, while also fitting into the local context of Hualien. Located on Taiwan’s picturesque east coast between the mountains and the ocean, the region is known for its spectacular natural beauty and a cultural heritage that includes several of the island’s indigenous tribes.

The mural uses colors and patterns inspired by the native tribes in a mosaic that treats the ceramic tiles as architectural pixels. The design balances the partially abstracted faces of Sera and Nakaw, two ancestors of the local Amay clan, with a series of oval geometric volumes. Up close, the façade is a blast of eye-catching colors and patterns; from a distance, the figures are revealed and the mural becomes a symbol of Hualien.

Pentagram previously collaborated with TLDC on Huilanwan Sunrise Village, a luxury residential complex and wellness center near the New Paradiso, and Flour and Salt Bakery, a café and retail chain in Taipei.