Events 2006.04 Venice.en
From Architect HSIEH and Atelier-3
2006.09~11
La Biennale di Venezia
Sustainable Construction in Community: Live Dialogue in Venice
Rendez-vous at Palazzo delle Prigioni, Venice, September 11 ~ November 19, 2006
Live
Photo Albums
- Mei-yuan construction site, Taiwan
- Lankao construction site, Henan, China
- Thao Ancestral Worship Ceremony, Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan
- Palazzo delle Prigioni, Venezia, Italia
Dialogue
(Q&A)
- What are the challenges in the new era? It's the "Sustainable Construction".
- "Sustainable Construction" is constituted societally, economically and environmentally. Are there established of examples "Sustainable Construction"?
- How can the 900 million farmers in China participate in the "Sustainable Construction"? The impact from this population can never be underestimating.
- How can the population of the third world, taking 70% of the entire world population, participate in the "Sustainable Construction"?
- What does the production and living system of community autonomy mean under the trend of globalization?
- How does the settlement of the Thao tribe in Taiwan, about only 500 people left now, survive under such tides? How can they enhance their consciousness of community and resist the absorption of the mainstream through construction their own community in order to preserve their heritage?
- How does the (architectural cooperative society of the Lan-kao Her Village in He-nan Province, China can proceed its rural development under the principles of socialism and gradually not to depend on currency, market economy to form its own independent "Sustainable Construction" economy?
- How do architects face the housing issues of the large population of farmers in China: trying for a more open construction system?
- What are the fundamentals of pluralism? - Based on the "inter-subjectivity" proposed by Eugene Habermas, finding a new direction for architects.
- What will be the new aesthetics under such principles? What will be like in the Realm of "Wu- a place where weeds luxuriate"?
A miscellaneous talk with Hsieh
<<DOMUS 'The manuscript of interviewing 78 architects in China'. Don't copy without agreement>>
- Q1.How was the method for collaborative construction conceived? In this global atmosphere of industrialized mass production, why did you take on this method?
- Collaborative construction is an ancient tradition, which has become lost in the process of modernization. I participated in the reconstruction of indigenous communities after the 921 earthquake in Taiwan and the development of new socialist farming villages in China with the ideal of sustainability in mind, so naturally re-integrated this excellent tradition in the methods I used.
- Industrialized mass production is losing ground under the nightmare of environmental crisis, how can we expect it to solve problems in the social, economical, and culturally disadvantaged farming village areas which face sensitive environmental issues?
- Q2.How is the concept of sustainable architecture concretely realized?
- Sustainable architecture should not just discuss technical problems in the environmental issue such as green architecture and energy conservation, but include a wider range of subjects such as the economical and social cultural issues.
- On the environmental level, we insist on using generally available and suitable techniques for green architecture; on the economical level, we emphasis on a community based, self-sufficient construction system, utilizing surplus labor and local materials to reduce dependency on currency and the mainstream construction market, at the same time simplifying the facilities for production in order to cut down capital investment; on the social cultural level, with the system of cooperative organization, and “work” as a module of labor exchange, we respect the working and living rights of all persons, and aim to increase community coherence and consciousness, conserve the diversity of culture through the act of mutual help and collective labor.
- To achieve the above goals, the following technical methods are employed
- Simplified construction methods - for the non-professional to take part in the labor process
- Open building – a principle for the changeable and unchangeable in construction and spatial layout to adapt to diverse needs
- Q3.Please explain your concepts of open building and its construction system?
- What should and can an architect do when faced with hundreds of thousands of different needs for farmers’ housing designs? We cannot custom-make every single house, so naturally need to find a kind of rule for all purposes, including space, construction techniques and materials, to try and adapt to diverse needs. An approximate definition is to design the “prototype” of a building, which from the constructional point of view is an “open” construction method.
- In actual practice, apart from constructing the “prototype”, the most important thing is to simplify the methods of building so that non-professional workers and take part and also understand the technical principles, and adjust flexibly.
- “Open building” consists of two sides, the command of inner order and flexible development. The architect seeks to master the former, and let the user elaborate on the latter. Different from the thinking of architect as subject, the users or constructors participate in the creative process, and the two sides together present “order” and “diversity”. This is close to the state of traditional settlements, and in philosophical thinking close to what Habermas calls “intersubjectivity”.
- Q4.How did the experiment/practice start in China? What were the difficulties and challenges?
- In the spring of 2004, because we had similar ideologies, I came to agreement with Professor WEN Tiejun, who is an expert on agricultural economics and rural development, and joined him at the James Yen Rural Reconstruction Institute in Hebei, to work on the new farming village reconstruction movement in China.
- As I had accumulated some experience in the reconstruction of Taiwanese indigenous communities since the earthquake in 1999, I found similarities between the former and farming villages in China, namely: disadvantaged in the economic market, contradictions between environmental protection and economical development, issues of sustainability etc.
- Farming villages in China are quite new to the economic market, so many valuable traditions are still intact, for example, community conscious, relatively independent economic system, an active attitude and autonomous conscious of local residents, so the impetus of our methods was received with unimagined smoothness, especially the concepts of cooperatives, building solidarity, mutual exchange of labor, and using green materials such as grass, mud, bamboo, wood…all of these ideas are accepted here. The only problem is the residents’ irresistible urge to blindly follow irrational “trends”, yet how many people and places do can resist?
- Q5.Do the current policies help you in practice? Can your methods become widely accepted?
- It seems like when we emphasis on autonomous construction and mutual help to reduce dependency on the currency and stimulate the farmers’ creativity and productivity, the society, market and government are left out of the whole affair; on the other hand, if the government can follow along this context to provide aid, a small amount of support can result in huge outcomes. For example, if the government can provide credit assurance or loan interest subsidy for the building cooperative, it can become leverage for labor aspiring people to build a house without money at hand, as well as to mobilize surplus labor in farming villages more efficiently to feed into the sustainable reconstruction movement of new farming villages. This model of building finance also lets farmer housing become an appraisable capital, which will vitalize the counterflow and flexible use of village finance. As soon as this crucial factor is established, mass production can naturally occur, and technical breakthrough be achieved through the input of talent.
- Q6.What is the concept of your work at the 2006 Venice Biennale?
- The exhibition is entitled “Sustainable Construction in Community: Dialogue in Venice” and the main display will feature the community reconstruction of the Thao tribe, the least populated indigenous tribe in Taiwan, and the sustainable housing and community reconstruction of farming villages with the Henan Lankaoher Cooperative society. Through the internet data archives and video conference Q&A, we aim to communicate our concepts and present the results of our work. The Q&A subjects are as follows:
- "Sustainable Construction" is constituted societally, economically and environmentally. Are there established of examples "Sustainable Construction"?
- How can the 900 million farmers in China participate in the "Sustainable Construction"? The impact from this population can never be underestimated.
- Why can’t modern architectural theory and practice enter this domain?
- How does the architectural cooperative society of the Lan-kao Her Village in He-nan Province, China proceed its rural development under the principles of socialism?
- What does the production and living system of community autonomy mean under the trend of globalization?
- How does the Thao tribe in Taiwan enhance their community consciousness and resist the absorption of the mainstream through construction of their own community in order to preserve their heritage?
- How do architects face the housing issues of the large population of farmers in China: trying for a more open construction system?
- What will be the new aesthetics under such principles?
- What are the fundamentals of pluralism? - Based on the "inter-subjectivity" proposed by Eugene Habermas, finding a new direction for architects.
- Q7.What is your self assessment of the state of work you are doing now.
- The ideal of sustainable architecture and all that challenge modern civilization, it’s a whole new era we are in, and faced with this mountain with no pinnacle in sight, all humans stand on the same grounds, and only by stedfast down-rooting can we climb upwards.
