One Minute Introduction

The Architecture Trip--The Most Famous Taiwanese Architect--C. Y. Lee

Taipei 101

  We can see Taipei 101 every day. Do you know who is the architect that designed Taipei 101? He is the most famous and the most controversial architect in Taiwan, C. Y. Lee(李祖原).

C. Y. Lee(李祖原)

  Why is he famous? It is because a lot of architectures in Taiwan were designed by him. Here are some works done by him.

1. Taipei 101:
  The highest building in the world once. The shape of it is like a bamboo, and the coin decoration symbolizes wealth. The most surprising device of it is the damper(阻尼器), preventing earthquake and typhoon destroying it.

Taipei 101

Taipei 101 is the shape of bamboo

The coin decoration

This decoration symbolizes wealth

The huge damper inside Taipei 101

2. 85 Sky Tower(85大樓):

  The second highest building in Taiwan, the shape of it is the Chinese word "高," represents the "Kaohsiung City."

85 Sky Tower

The shape of 85 Sky Tower is the word "高"

3. Lihpao Land(月眉育樂世界)

4. Taipei Bus Station(台北轉運站)

5. Expo 2010 Taiwan pavilion(上海世博台灣館)

  Then, why is he the most controversial architect in Taiwan? Here are some Lee's architects to explain the controversy.

1. Fang Yuan Building(中國方圓大廈):

  As you can see, It is a shape of a coin. To be mention, it was elected to be one of the ugliest building in the world by CNN.

Fang Yuan Building is a big coin

2. Chien-Cheng Circle(台北建成圓環):

  A food court open in 2003. But now, it becomes a white elephant(蚊子館) and is going to be destroyed.

Chien-Cheng Circle's glass make the inside too hot

3. Tainan Chinese Town(台南中國城):

  A building with poor design, that make it become a place with poor security. It is going be destroyed.

Tainan Chinese Town

4. Chung Tai Chan Monastery(南投中台禪寺):

  A luxurious monastery. Being elected to be the ugliest building in Taiwan.

Chung Tai Chan Monastery

  Although Lee is a controversial architect, I believe that his designs look not so bad. Maybe he needs to pay more attention on the usage of the architect, instead of focusing on the shape and the size.

The Architecture Trip--The praying hands--Luce Chapel

The Luce Chapel

The shape of it is claimed to be praying hands

  The architecture for this week the Luce Chapel(路思義教堂), located in Tunghai University(東海大學) in Taichung. Like the architects mentioned before, the architect who designed it is very famous--he is Ieoh Ming Pei(貝聿ㄩˋ銘). He got the Nobel prize in architecture, Pritzker Architecture Prize(普立茲克建築獎), as the two Japanese architects did.

The smiley architect, Ieoh Ming Pei, is a Chinese-American

The pyramid in front of the the Louvre museum(羅浮宮) is his representative work

  What make the Chapel so special? It is the walls, well, they are not only walls but also a roof. The four curved walls are the main structure of the architecture.

Only made up of four curved walls

It is just like a tent

I used to want to climb the wall when I was a kid because of this program

  Look from the inside of the chapel, we can see the walls are covered by block-shaped beams(格子樑), that are supporting the walls.

the block-shaped beams

The block shape is like the pineapple's

  Another texture of the architecture is the skylight. It is a straight line on the top, or to say, it cut the curved wall into two pieces.

The skylight represents the blessing of God

Like the view of  the narrow sky(一線天)

  The usages of the chapel are very variable, not only for worships.

It can be projected

Can be used to hold weddings

Can take photos like this at night

The lawn around the chapel is a suitable place to do activities, I used to play baseball here

The Architecture Trip--The sound cave--National Taichung Theater

the National Taichung Theater

  The architecture for this week is the National Taichung Theater(台中國家歌劇院), a very popular architecture in Taichung. It was designed by a famous architect, Toyo Ito(伊東豊[ㄈㄥ]雄), another Japanese architect who got the Nobel prize in architecture, Pritzker Architecture Prize(普立茲克建築獎).

Toyo Ito

The  Social Science library in NTU is built by Ito, too

  I had been there since I was preparing the oral quiz of the architecture department. At that time, the theater wasn't open to public. So I  could only go around the theater and took glances inside.

  Ito claims that the theater is imitating the shape of caves, symbolizing we are back to the prehistory and enjoy the purity of life. While Some one claim it is like a cheese, my first thought of the outline of the architecture is a cut of a big nose and the breathing system. Then, what is the nose smelling at? Maybe the PM2.5, the air pollution problem of Taichung ,or the money stink in the 7th Re-planning District(七期).

Like a carve of nose

some one think it's a cheese

Ito claims that it is a cave 

  Why is Ito building architecture like this, with holes and tunnels? It is because that he was tired of squares and angles of buildings and wants to create something organic, like the tree-shaped columns of the Social Science library in NTU.

there are no squares and no angles in the theater

  In fact, building the curved walls takes a lot of effort. Therefore, the theater wins the titles of "the most difficult building to build," and "the new nine buildings of the world."

I think the curved wall will be dangerous for kids

the uniform of the staff. 

  It is always my regret that I didn't make it to visit indoor space. Hope that I will have the chance some day.

Besides the theater, the apartments in the 7th Re-planning District(七期) is an enjoyable sight, too

The Architecture Trip--The Big Sandwich--Asia University Museum of Modern Art

Preface: I'm sorry that I change my topic for some reason. From this week, I will write about another topic that interest me--architecture. It can be traced back to my high school period, I was appealed to architecture and had a hard time to try to get into the architecture department of Cheng Kung university, however, I failed twice and gave up persuading the goal. Never mind, I would like to talk about some famous architecture that I have visited. I enjoy the feeling of traveling and taking a look of the architectures, hope you enjoy it, too.

The museum is also called Ando Tadao museum(by me)

  Asia University Museum of Modern Art(亞洲現代美術館) is located in Asia University in Taichung City. The important feature of it is that it was designed by a Japanese architect, Tadao Ando(安藤忠雄), who got the Pritzker Architecture Prize(普立茲克建築獎), the Nobel prize of architecture.

  When I made my first glance on the museum, I associate it to a big sandwich, since it was made up of three slices of triangle. This is a very strange design because a museum is used to display exhibits, so it is usually built at the shape of square. Triangle may cause two problems, the pass way for visitors may be difficult to arrange, and the number of the exhibits may decrease because of triangle is not suitable to fit things.

Triangle shape design

Just like a sandwich 

  As I set my first step in the museum, I found that the whole museum is made up of triangle. Moreover, the pillars are triangle-shaped, too! It is said that the triangle-shaped pillars is designed to endure earthquakes.

Triangle-shaped pillars

Triangle staircase

Triangle skylight

  How about the two question I mention above? First, the pass way for visitors may be difficult to arrange. To emphasize, one of the main textures of the Ando's works is that he like to arrange the space as a maze. The advantage of making a space a maze is that he can add theatricality into the spaces easily as it is very complex, for example:

First, enter the hall, it is a wide space 

Then, take the narrow stairs

Then, a wide room

Complex place like in a maze

  An order of wide, narrow, wide, can be represent as happy, sad, happy, this is full of dramatic. Ando is expert at handling the strange shape.

Ando is a master of controlling space, like a magician

  Another problem is that the number of the exhibits that can be display may decrease. This problem can't be solve, but this create a new feeling. When watching the exhibits in the room, it is like that I am in a pinball game, and I am the ball.

Exhibits placement is not in order

Another room

Just like in the pinball game

  At last, I list three must-see in the Ando museum.

the presentation of light

In this corner, you can see two sides of the museum

Every one love the Exposed Concrete(清水模)