Intro.en
From Architect HSIEH and Atelier-3
Introduction
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HSIEH, Ying-chun
HSIEH, Ying-chun was born in 1954 and graduated from Tam-king University, Architecture Department in 1977. Unlike other architects who works mostly on design, he worked as a constructor and contractor in the first stage of his profession life. With the booming development of Taiwanese electrical industry, he created HSIEH Architects and Associates in 1984 and designed numerous High-technology Factories and public buildings, followed by two successful projects, Xin-zhu County Cultural Center in 1997 and Mei-nong Hakka Museum in 1998.
921 Reconstruction and Thao
Within a month after the most destructive earthquake in modern Taiwan, September 21, 1999, Hsieh went to the Thao aboriginal village by the shore of Sun Moon Lake. While the society focused on the reconstruction of public buildings and apartments in the big cities, Hsieh stayed in the aboriginal village deep in the mountains and wanted to help the reconstruction of rural housing in the aboriginal communities.
With less than 300 persons, Thao is the least populated tribe in Taiwan, but their traditional rituals and ceremonies are still well preserved. However, like most of other declining, marginalized aboriginal communities, they struggle to live together and continue their traditions. Hsieh realized that the reconstruction should be focused not only on the building of houses and public devices, but also on the reconstruction of social and economical life. The design of the Thao community emphasized on the ritual spaces, and bamboo houses which are similar to ancient aboriginal houses. The structure of the bamboo houses are of light-weight steel which are easy to acquire and assemble. He then trained the Thao people and introduced "collaborative construction" to help people work together and build their own houses.
Atelier-3
Thao village was built in six months after the earthquake and provided Thao people living and ritual spaces. Hsieh moved his office to the village and collaborated with the Thao people to continue reconstruct other communities. The Atelier-3 was created in one of the bamboo houses, aimed at designing affordable, appropriate and sustainable houses which are easy to construct by the community inhabitants. Hsieh and Atelier-3 continued to work in 'collaborative construction' in many different aboriginal mountain villages and has aided the reconstruction of more than 300 houses up to the present day. Recent projects include Song-he village in 2004, construction of Tian-hu village in 2005, and Mei-yuan village in 2006.
Rural Reconstruction Studio in China
Hsieh was invited to China in 2004 to help with the construction of a public toilet which turned into a separation toilet made from natural materials. He then created Rural Architecture Studio and built Earth House 001, 002 and Aceh House Prototype in Hebei. In 2006 the Studio went to the rural area in Henan and gathered the farmers to form a Construction Cooperative and built 2 unites of Earth House 003. The Cooperative continues to work on several housing construction projects.
