BODY AND LANDSCAPE AS A WAYS OF SEEING

Eric Chen, a Taiwanese architect had given a public talk at UCSI University during 1st April 2017 with the topic ‘BODY AND LANDSCAPE AS A WAYS OF SEEING’. Eric explores relationships between architects and “empathy” of body and landscape. Except for the repetitive intervention and formation of physicality, it also considers a possibility of differentiation, forming another way of watching and putting a body via another interface, the conversion of material, the errors in connective points, and the location of the body. In such a way, these factors can be embodied “empathy” of forming material texture, forming forces and common movements.

Floating Urban Islands - Small temporary architectures bring Taiwan’s unused spaces to life.

They are pavilions, some of which can be disassembled and others that can be moved on wheels, which host activities designed to activate underused public spaces and that vary on a case by case basis. The constructions are inspired by the infinite number of spontaneous solutions that can be seen in Taiwan’s streets, squares and parks, especially at night selling food: makeshift restaurants where a hob, a corrugated metal roof, a table and some stools bring otherwise deserted sidewalks and spaces to life.

A system of lightweight metal struts and plastic panels are assembled to create small, lightweight kiosks, which are used as exhibition galleries, graphic production centres, and temporary radio stations. In the tropical night, the diaphanous apparition of these little buildings stands out against the backdrop of the city thanks to the artificial light that filters through their translucent shell and their white colour. New routes and social relationships are therefore triggered by this network of objects, which accepts and reinterprets the transitory nature of Taiwan’s urban space.

The range of possibilities for the project is endless; it’s a programme that has been reinterpreted on a case by case basis. On a few occasions local organizations have helped with the construction and the choice of activity, creating community gardens and clinics. On other occasions cultural institutions commissioned the creation of several elements as part of a festival or public event. Chen describes the strategy of these drifting islands as the meeting point where familiar forms (the roof, the window, the wall, the door), that belong to the architectural tradition, converge with the aesthetic tradition of assembling simple materials, which is instead typical of the spontaneity of urban life.

The form of all these structures are so fascinating that I would like to pay a visit but the meaning behind is actually more touching.

Eric would also like to study more about a church named The First Cathedral. It’s a very significant building, in which people hiding inside during the war, but when the army came, they just shot all of them using the machine gun. So, he is now in the midst of discussion with the one of the collaborator from Palestine about the way to make people aware of the importance of the history by trying to find 4000 shields to cover the church for people to recall the memory of the incident. All the shields will be arranged in different angle so that they allow people to get closer to church in different way and to find a new way to approach the church.

With the same concept with the installation in Taipei Fine Art Museum, Eric had collaborated with Rain Wu on constructing a specific installation titled ‘Collectivism’ with 600 bullet-proof police shields to surround a garden. The space is experienced as an ambivalent contrast that presents the organic growth of ideologies through ordered resistance.

This talk is very inspiring in understanding of how architecture extend to what kind of possibility. Eric didn’t talk about how he creates all these element, and how he makes it technically but to try different ways on emphasizing the actions and the engagement with the people to make all these thing more meaningful, and not just creating something that with wild factors like what we always do to make people appreciating the building. At the end, I can see that all these inventions of creating all these artworks, the purpose is actually to release the phase of the issues facing by the people and to reconnect the people. Eric always tries to use artwork to find a new way to present to show that architecture is not only about a building, it can be presented by different point. That’s the thing that he wants to ask himself about why architecture must be built?

In conclusion, we should not concern on creating architecture, but to understand why we need this architecture.

“It’s not about how we create the architecture, but to know why we need it.”

Eric Chen