- Content Physical Model of All the Projects in this portfolio Fall , 2020
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- Content -
content
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The House of Houses A house about the common people dwellings and the architectural mischief
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Living Monuments Renovations of Public Buildings in an Old Community, the Garden New Town Neighborhood
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Adaptive Platform
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The 30th Graduation Exhibition of CYID
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Perception & Non-Perception An Art Instrallation Project in Wu Xiang Mountain Public Land Art Competition
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Tower of force A Way of Discovering New Spatial Form
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Follow-up practices Practices in Garden New Town Neighborhood
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other practices Taiwan Guqin Society Concert / TID Award 2017 Campus Forum
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- Chapter 01 -
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- Chapter 01 -
01 The house of houses A House About the Common People Dwellings and the Architectural Mischief March - May, 2019 Individual Work in Personal Studio This design is an observation and translation of ordinary Taiwanese residences, which freely incorporate an array of symbols and house types, while exhibiting a discrepancy between the exterior and interior. Taiwan is a country in constant change. Residential houses here may differ in age, geographical or cultural origins but they all appear unfettered, free from any baggage – as if they had all selfdeconstructed at will in a natural and organic fashion; and then selfreconstructed - in an impromptu architectural dance.
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The House of Houses arise from existing architectural phenomenon. It emerged as an extract of privately built villas in Taiwan, reflecting their energetic utilization of collage, and their fun-loving and deceptional symbolic application. Based on similar compositional logic, innovative spatial strategies are then packaged in what appear to be practical jokes and irony.
phenomenon - Chapter 01 -
Choosing New Faces Houses arrived here with old residential experiences and habits. After a few years, inspired by more recent arrivals, they aspired to a new look, a face that spoke of modernity, wealth, and class. Residential houses never considered a thorough transformation, but they were keen to shape their images in the eyes of others.
Research Models (Faces of Taiwanese Residential Houses)
These houses above reflect the values and life experiences of our generation.
Summary of ordinary people’s life memories. Here come to a residential area featuring privately built detached houses on the outskirts of Taipei. A jumble of various house types spread out on the flat ground, like a summary of ordinary people’s life memories. Model of the Site, Zhitan Community, On the Outskirt of Taipei.
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site - Chapter 01 -
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Distorting Mirror You can find a semblance of any house type imaginable here - from a rural courtyard house, a city roll house, an apartment building, to a western-styled villa .
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Courtyard House (San-Ho-Yuan)
City Roll Houses (Townhouses)
Privately Built Villas 4
On a corner of this community, a special house is silently observing. Like a distorting mirror, it reflects the variety of houses around it while creating new and interesting images.
Courtyard House (San-Ho-Yuan)
Composition It is the House of Houses. It contains all the house types that have come and gone on this land in the past century. As different house types arrange themselves in places, they influence and define one another. Each house type has directly or indirectly determined the order of the overall architectural space.
City Roll Houses (Townhouses)
Privately Built Villas
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concept - Chapter 01 -
A Series of Dynamic Images It could be interpreted that the House of Houses aims to capture a series of dynamic images, to condense old and new residential houses that existed on this land in the past century. It has many faces and contains many symbols: those of the archetype of the single-family house, the traditional courtyard house, roll house, basilica, and western villa.
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concept
Like all its neighbors, the House of Houses wears a mask and pursues the peculiar discrepancy between exterior and interior displayed by Taiwanese residences.
Here is a joke the House of Houses makes: the windows, which are holes on outer walls were stealthily replaced by ‘beams’.
The window loses its original function; its form becomes a purer symbol, a mask that need not reflect reality.
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- Chapter 01 -
Wearing a Mask
Perspectiv - Chapter 01 06
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The spatial association that the faรงade alludes to no longer exists. Instead, an extraordinary space created by an ordinary faรงade steps in.
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ve section - Chapter 01 -
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Garage Toilet Living Space Fake Outer Wall Fake Tatami Room
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Balcony Gardenhouse Courtyard Master Bedroom Bathroom Secondary Bedroom Guest Room
Spatial Planning - Chapter 01 -
Spatial Composition The outer walls play an overly critical role, while the indoor space actively cooperates with them, responding to their instructions and hints - such as their openings and displacement.
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What you assume to be the main entrance is really a window that cannot be opened.
Front Elevation
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Back Elevation
Dislocation of walls creates various openings and gaps, blurring the boundary between inside and outside. In addition, the dislocation also creates visual illusion that limits the voyeur ’s view from outside. -09-
What you assume to be a stairway is really a statue outside the window.
Spatial Planning - Chapter 01 -
First Floor
Second Floor
(The plane section height is at 4.5 m)
(The plane section height is at 6 m)
Axonometric From Under (From Second floor)
Structure The House of Houses is comprised of various building structures borrowed from ordinary residences, such as the beam and column system, load bearing walls, wall panels, steel frame, and folded roof. The wall is pushed in on both sides of the entrance, while the faรงade is duplicated and extended inward in two directions to determine the composition of the interior space.
Axonometric From Under (From first floor)
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PHYSICAL MODEL - Chapter 01 In the center of the house, a cylindrical chimney integrates various horizontal and vertical structural systems. The fireplace and chimney remain formally and symbolically the core of the House of Houses. -11-
of this project - Chapter 01 The full picture of any activity or incident taking place inside the house would be sliced up and broken, left to outsiders’ free association and misinterpretation.
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Furniture - Chapter 01 -
Outside the Curtains The area in front of the curtains lies the obvious spatial association referred to by the ordinary furniture: “Sofa – Living Room” “Dining Table – Dining Room”.
Inside the Curtains Different furniture items connect to one another, illustrating the fact that furniture should never be lone islands of functions, but extensions of living.
An Article of Furniture In an ordinary residence, a sofa may become where mealtimes take place; the dining table turns into an office and the actual study a storage room. This reality is revealed in the House of Houses through three curtains which separate furniture's symbolic images and actual utility.
Outside the Curtains
Actual Living Space
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interior - Chapter 01 -
Perspective Section
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01 A corner of the first floor “living room area” viewed from outside the French window in the back façade 02 The main courtyard of the courtyard house on the Second floor with the chimney column the main feature in the open space
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- Chapter 02 -
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- Chapter 02 -
02 Living monuments Renovation of Public Buildings in an Old Community Fall, 2017 - Spring, 2018 Advisor : Yen-Ching Chu Role : Chief Designer (Collaborated Hanchun Tsai) This design focuses on the community ‘Garden New Town Neighborhood’ planned by architect Xiu Zelan. 50 years ago. It was once the most celebrated gated community in Taiwan with its own supermarket, restaurant, school, even a private waterworks. Like a small, self-sufficient city, it was the most exclusive high-end residential area in Taiwan. Years later, however, its managing company went bankrupt due to mismanagement, and for decades the community slumped with its public spaces at the core abandoned and becoming dilapidated one after another.
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I have attempted to intervene with its three particularly important public spaces. Although these three venues have long been deserted, their former selves continue to exist in two forms: in residents’s memories and in the desire to utilize. Between the two, however, there always seem to be conflicts and contradictions. This is exactly what I finds interesting and inviting. Through discussions and space reconstruction on paper, this design summons the past, while enabling these buildings to respond to the present and turn into a sequence of viable monuments.
site - Chapter 02 1
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Overall View of Garden New Town Neighborhood in June,1980.
Three places, Three Soliloquies I am imagining: if abandoned buildings have souls, too, with what emotions would they exist? For more than 50 years, the community has gone from heyday to decay, experiencing a revival that gradually lost its luster again. All 3 venues remain as onlookers while continuing to be the much-talked-about celebrities in residents’ gossip. They are actually mirrors, reflecting the memory of the community and the changing expectations of the residents in different eras.
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Abandoned Guardhouse
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Water Pumping Station
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Ting-Tao Hall
Photos of the Three Places in March, 2018
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Characters - Chapter 02 -
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Abandoned Guardhouse 52 years old. Located on the outer edge of the community, he was once an important checkpoint for people to enter and exit the community.
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Solemn and reticent – that is people’s general impression of him.
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Fountain / Water Pumping Station 52 years old. He used to act as a bubbly ambassador for the community. After being unemployed for many years, he got a new job as a water pumping station because of the community’s water demand.
Ting-Tao Hall
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50 years old.
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Cheerful and kind, she used to be the most popular building in the neighborhood, multi-tasking as restaurant, supermarket, childcare center, and swimming pool. Since the operating company went bust 20 years ago, she has locked herself up from the outside world.
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background / concept - Chapter 02 -
Abandoned Guardhouse For a long time, I have had very few friends... I only remember that my previous job was quite serious. After becoming unemployed about 10 years ago, I have since shut myself up on the hillside.
The only social interaction I had was to rub shoulders with the residents as they went in and out of the community every day. After I became unemployed, the residents started piling junk in my unused hulk.
That doesn’t make me a proper warehouse, but I guess it’s good to do something on the side.
I was told that since the city government took over, the community must remain open to the public.
He began to think about the future. Gazing idly at the white arch and something suddenly dawned on him…
It means that there will never be a guardhouse again and that I will never be reinstated…
Previously on the Abandoned Guardhouse
A New Entrance At first, the residents of Garden New To w n N e i g h b o r h o o d w e r e m o s t l y government or military high officials of the ruling party. During the martial law era, this gated community denoted authority. As it is now being forced to remain open to the public, how should the former guardhouse reconsider its raison d’etre after years of abandonment? How should it respond to its past? This design attempts to reverse the guardhouse from something that aims to keep people out to something that caters to people. Unlike the majestic colossal arch next to it, the new entrance converted from the old guardhouse provides a new way to enter the community, symbolizing the move from authoritarianism to freedom. It is a way to establish a new image and at the same time respond to the past.
Serious Guardhouse
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Gracious Entrance
design - Chapter 02 -
Design Plan
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Original space
Demolish the outer wall and only retain the corner window, which is the emblem most representative of the former guardhouse.
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Separate the corner window's form and function (but retain the warehouse function inside the curved wall).
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Demolish the internal walls partially but retain the original layout.
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Insert a row of steel plates to ensue the vocabulary of existing wall
Organize the spatial tone into a bilateral plan with left and right sides.
Do some final fine-tuning
The guardhouse becomes a new entrance and a people-friendly pavilion
No Longer a Guardhouse Without the surrounding walls, the guardhouse looks open and cheerful. A curved wall gently liberated the window from its function, so the corner window becomes an independent sculpture. A row of dancing steel plates interspersed with the old partition walls with climbing plants clambers on the cliff in front of them. A body of water quietly lies below a few steps at the end of the old guardhouse. It is no longer a guardhouse, but a new entrance that makes the act of entering the community slower and quieter. Next to the majestic white arch, it lies supine, laid back and unassuming. As an entrance, it is very young. Physical Model of the Design
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background / concept - Chapter 02 -
Fountain / Water Pumping Station
I had been fenced off for a long time.
When the construction team removed the barrier, I disappeared completely and was replaced by this colossal cement block and messy pipelines.
I try hard to adapt to this new identity but can’t help thinking about the past…
You do look a bit ugly, but never mind, you are very useful now!
People always used to stay close to me, chatting, partying, falling in love…
Dumbfounded, I forced a smile. After all, having tap water up in the mountain had been long-awaited by the residents.
He is not sure how ‘useful’ he was back in those days, but he sure miss it....
Previously on the Abandoned Fountain and Water Pumping Station
Existing Circumstances
A Booster Pump Fountain
2014 - 2018
The fountain used to be a significant emblem of the community’s spirit. As one of the most iconic structures in Garden New Town Neighborhood, it had been the venue for almost all the public gatherings and assemblies, amongst which the most frequently held were the Tap Water Petition Meetings which lasted for 10 years. The fountain had always been inextricably linked with the Tap Water Petition Movement. Ironically, when the water pipes were finally installed, the fountain had to be demolished and converted into a pumping station because land available in the community was limited. The two once closely connected entities suddenly had two opposite purposes.
Functional Place
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Future Planning Functional & Memorial Place
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design - Chapter 02 -
Combination
Fountain
Water Pumping Station
Design Plan
Coexist This design intends to explore the possibility of uniting the two conflicting roles so the pumping station and the fountain can coexist. Let it not only be a structure that meets the needs of the residents, but also a monument that tells the story of the past. Install a body of shallow water between the water storage tank and the exposed pipelines. This would not only hide the colossal cement volume but also extract form out of the function of the pipelines. They become a ‘readymade’ symbol of the Tap Water Petition Movement.
Physical Model of the Design
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background / concept - Chapter 02 -
Ting-Tao Hall I was born to love the crowd. Maybe it’s so deeply rooted in my nature that sometimes I feel I’m going to explode.
In the old days people always loved to weave through me. They came here to eat, swim, or just enjoy a leisurely life.
Later, after I became unemployed, people had to leave me. There are too many stories about property rights on this land.
Shut down for 20 years, she has been reduced from a buzzing hub to a thick slab of wall ....
Standing alone in the center of the community, a wall that seems so familiar yet so strange to the residents.
Previously on the Abandoned Community Center
A Massive Wall After being closed off for 20 years, Ting-Tao Hall gradually faded into the residents’ memories but always with a touch of mystery. Almost every resident had some sort of fantasy about that deserted space, and they have all participated in a space reconstruction of TingTao Hall in their own mind. If Ting-Tao Hall was to reopen, how could it regain its communal attributes? How should a design reflect its history and memory after being shut down for decades? How could it encourage the residents to continue fantasizing freely about Ting-Tao Hall’s interior space? The fantasy about the deserted space
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design - Chapter 02 -
A Giant Staircase In our design, Ting-Tao Hall reopens in a discreet manner, with the original entrance at road level turning into a sunken plaza, hence it still looks shut down from afar, but with the actual space opening widely.
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In addition, we keep the old staircase at the front but cut it off midway to turn it into a giant sculpture. It no longer functions as a staircase but serves as viewing platform to look out on the entire faรงade of the Hall.
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Finally, the whole building connects the upper and lower sections of the development, residents would no longer need to detour or walk next to the traffic.
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Multi-functional indoor plaza
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Ateliers
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Library
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Community classroom
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Semi-outdoor sunken plaza
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Garden square
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Restaurant
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Second-floor piazza
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Classrooms
Perspective Section
Fourth Floor
Neutral Spaces
Third Floor
Several squares of different sizes and shapes are interspersed between different floors. These neutral spaces can adapt to the changing activities of the residents and allow the emergence of temporary spaces. Also, these neutral courtyards connect different functions, those of restaurants, markets, art studios and experimental classrooms, etc. They will promote more exchanges.
First Floor
Second Floor
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PHYSICAL MODEL o - Chapter 02 The girl leaped up a few steps and came to an end. The stairs leading up to the fourth floor had been cut in half and turned into a viewing platform. She stayed there enjoying the view for a long time. The large downward staircase was the new entrance. -25-
of tING-TAO HALL - Chapter 02 Ting-Tao Hall stirred from her daydream with many ideas flashing vaguely in her head. Realizing that she was getting really drowsy and with her eyes closing, she murmured to herself: “Never mind. There’s still plenty of time...” -26-
- Chapter 03 -
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- Chapter 03 -
03 Adaptive Platform The 30th Graduation Exhibition of CYID Fall, 2018 Role : Chief Designer (Collaborated Yicheng Zhang) Responsible for Over-All Design Work, Management and Participating in the Constructing Process This project features the graduation exhibition of the Interior Design D e p a r t m e n t o f C h u n g Yu a n Christian University. The exhibition was first held in Taipei Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and then moved back to the campus.
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Our goal was to design a display system that was cheap and sustainable without causing singleusage waste, while easy to transport and assemble. As the construction process was carried out entirely by students to cut costs, simplicity was also the design’s main emphasis.
design - Chapter 03 Exhibition Entrance
Ehibition : Frame System In the end we designed a wooden frame system fixed by metal locks, easy to disassemble, transport and store. Lighting and wiring were integrated into the frame to facilitate the display. The exhibition could thus be moved to any location with a power supply. To optimize the lighting effect, the display racks were built with mortise and tenon joints which provided the flexibility for polycarbonate hollow sheets or any light-transmitting boards to be slotted in.
Axonometric View
Front View
Lateral View
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detail - Chapter 03 -
Internal Structure
Display Effect: Different Materials of Boards
Light Resource Multiple 30 cm long, 80-watt LED tubes, light tube holders and wires are all embedded and hidden in the wooden structure.
Wood Framework The entire frame is made of wood battens (3.3 cm x 1.4 cm). Anticipating wiring for power, grooves and holes were pre-cut and drilled into the battens.
PC Hollow Sheet Using transparent PC hollow sheets make the wooden structure behind was still visible while the light diffused evenly.
Not only PC hollow sheets or various output tablets/boards slotted into the frame, prefabricated boxes could also fit as well. Thus, making the whole wooden structure an integral part of the exhibition.
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supplement - Chapter 03 -
Inhaul Cable The cable provides auxiliary tension for the cantilever to help stabilize the whole structure.
Steel Joint With one end fixed on the cantilever and the other on the canvas, the steel joint facilitated assembly and teardown while preventing parts being misplaced or lost.
Canvas The canvas defined the space of the main visual area from above, acting as a transition between the exhibition and the ceiling of the old tobacco factory, giving that space texture and a more intimate height.
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[02] This photo is from June 2018 during the on-campus exhibition preparatory phase which took place in the atrium of the Teaching Hall. The main visual wall of the original exhibition was set up first as an eye-catching and informative installation.
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This photo, taken in May 2018 outside the Design Institute of Chung Yuan Christian University, shows a trial run of the exhibition testing the lighting effect and stability of power distribution.
Exhibition Area - Chapter 03 -
Exhibition Area with Forum Activities Display Rack Units The area is mainly composed of 68 display rack units which could be deployed in a highly flexible way due to their simplicity and mobility. As a result, the floor plan could be adjusted easily for different exhibition needs.
Transparent Paper Exhibition content was printed on transparent lightbox paper. Diffused by indirect lighting both above and below, better colors and clarity were achieved and most importantly, with no risk of overexposure.
Light Resource
Disassembly and Storage
A 90 cm long, 18-watt LED light tube with its holder and wiring embedded and hidden in the wooden structure
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- Chapter 04 wu xiang temple locals flow
rural settlement the site
tourist route
04 Peception / non-perception Art Installation Project Oct - Nov, 2018 Advisor : Hao-De Huang Individual Work in the Foundation for Open Space, Taipei This art installation was designed for the Wu Xiang Mountain Public Land Art Competition in Nanjing, China. Wu Xiang Temple, as a famous attraction near the site, is a significant spiritual archetype for the local people. This art project located beside a field in the rural settlement is exactly a symbol deriving from Wu Xiang Temple.
The meaning of 'Wu Xiang' in Chinese akin to the state of nonperception. Without bothering with secular things, people in this state can truly relax their minds. We think when speaking of Non-perception, this idea should first begin with the realization of Perception, of oneself, and of surroundings, one is in. Thus, we create a space installation that can assist visitors to experience these two states in turn: Perception and then Non-perception.
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- Chapter 04 -
Composition The exterior of the installation including the fabric upward and the platform downward, forms an annular heterotopias. This heterotopias greets to the sunshine, the rain, and the caress of the wind. It is also a place at which people coming from far and near will meet.
1. The Perception Platform The semi-transparent fabric is in fact a sort of metaphor, indicating the relation between a person and the nature, and the relation between people. At the moment the wind blows the fabric which the falling ribbons are joined to, visitors will be intrigued to the game of serendipity (karma).
Exploded Drawing
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- Chapter 04 -
When the fabric upward is stirred by ribbons being pulled, a ripple effect would be triggered. One thus could interact with others when ribbons are stirred by other ribbons.
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2. The Non-Perception Room In the middle of the space is a black volume with a black mirror surface, reflecting the constant changes outside, while the volume itself stays all the same. It is a space regarding Non-perception. When you find the entrance along the wall, again, you will see yourself before entering. Then you walk into the darkness. In the beginning, the path is narrow. You sense yourself filling the whole space. However, by the next turn, it becomes spacious. Darkness is all-around, but a strip of light falls and brings the tranquility. When looking up along the light, you will find a canopy of stars.
Plan of the Art Installaton
The Entrance of the Non-Peception Room
Plan of the Art Installaton
Inside of the Non-Peception Room
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- Chapter 05 -
05 Tower of Force A Way of Discovering New Spatial Form Fall, 2016 Advisor: Leider Chiu Individual Work in the Chung Yuan Christian University This design is of a tower that explores physical forces and forms. It is an attempt to document the forces endured by objects and create new spaces by turning the objects into different forms. Furthermore, this design is also a discussion on the interplay of horizontal and vertical forces.
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PROCESS - Chapter 05 A1.
First, I applied pressure to a piece of paper to compress it into a ball shape, and sprayed the piece of paper with black ink to mark the surfaces that endured forces.
B1.
I prepared several boards connected with flexible metal columns to form a tower-like structure.
A2.
Flattened it to get a two-dimensional pattern that shows traces of forces.
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A+B. Combining the tower structure with "the papers"
This process was repeated several times to produce multiple pieces of paper with unique patterns.
The patterns on the papers define the intersection of the horizontal and vertical forces of the tower structure. -37-
RESULTS - Chapter 05 -
The patterns determine the position at which the horizontal structure crosses the vertical one. As each “floor� has a different pattern, the vertical structure must be twisted in such a way that also transforms the horizontal structure.
Concept Model and Final Model
Conclusion Through documentation, deconstruction, and transformation, the forces applied to the paper were translated and represented as unique spaces with intertwined structures that run perpendicular to each other. -38-
Follow-up PRACTICES - Chapter 06 -
Practices in Garden New Town Neighborhood
Exhibition in My Community In the fall of 2018, I combined my graduation project with the community's old photos in an exhibition at the Orchid Stream Culture Association in the Garden New Town Neighborhood, and started holding a monthly resident’s exchange meeting.
Construction Workcamp Collaborated with Haotian Wang, Jia You Chen
In the spring of 2019, me and my friend organize a workcamp, encouraging residents, both adults and children, to participate in and learn the process of bamboo construction.
Open House Taipei 2020 Collaborated with Haotian Wang, Jiasin Zheng
In the fall of 2020, we participated in the Open House Festival, Taipei. We planned a hiking route and launched a ‘Stoppingby’ activity, linking up multiple households and encouraging residents to share their community experiences with visiting guests.
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OTHER PRACTICES - Chapter 07 -
Taiwan Guqin Society Concert Nov, 2020 Role: Performer
TID Award 2017 Campus Forum Nov, 2017 Role: Moderator -40-
- Thank You -
