CIVIC IDENTITY I

Location: Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan Program: Student dorm 2016 What the project intends is to fix the contradiction of city life and the initial concept of student community in the university. It starts with the study on morpho-typology of Taiwanese building and collectivity in the campus. As a student, a studio room is usually called a home, which signifies an important concept about the prototype of a home in Taiwanese society. I chose the typical street house as the prototype.

The campus is located on one side of a hill in the west of Taichung city on which the sunrise can be seen from the east direction. At the end of 20 century, the city and the edge of campus had a conflict eventually. Students are still living in the contradiction which is not only about environment but also on the aspect of education between religious spirit and secular concepts.

The behaviorology study starts with the initial subjective perception of living space for students. As a student who has been living in that utopian campus for 5 years, I imagined how the getting up, thinking and other behavior could be related with the city context.

The environment forms the behavior of users. The home of mine is an absolutely lonely space but also as my last shelter. These two contrast living spaces provide two types of idealistic dwelling in my mind. I tried to push myself into the behavior of loneliness. For the public space, the atmosphere should be quiet but with the perception that delivered the same with the old campus. To emphasize the meaning of shelter, the tea place is the spiritual part of a family, in the case of the street house as a unit of a family group.

The individual room in Taiwan’s environment is actually the room of loneliness. The room heading to campus provides the atmosphere hidden back from the city, while another room makes students feel involved in urban life.

The enclosed environment of campus is like the last natural utopian space in the city to invite living room out from two narrow walls. While the tea place is suspended on the top of the sidewalk, it seems like a shelter to observe the city and ourselves.