Profile and Representative Works
From Architect HSIEH and Atelier-3
Hsieh Ying Chun: an Introduction
Hsieh Ying Chun graduated from Tamkang University School of Architecture in 1977, and worked in construction for many years before returning to the world of architectural design. His rich experience in construction initiated the deep reflections on the industrialization of contemporary architecture spurred his revolution in architectural continuity.
Following the massive earthquake in Taiwan on September 21, 1999, Hsieh took his office to the Sun Moon Lake disaster area in Nantou County, with its high population of Aboriginal Thao minority, to begin reconstruction efforts there. Guided by the simple tools and environmentally-friendly materials in Thao buildings, Hsieh and his collaborators were able to complete reconstruction within extremely tight economic parameters. In 2004, Hsieh traveled to rural areas of Hebei, Henan, and Anhui to promote cooperative, sustainable building in the countryside to demonstrate a novel and effective integration of rural social and economic conditions. In the wake of the devastating May 12, 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, Hsieh and members of his Rural Architecture Studio aided in reconstructing homes for disaster victims in isolated mountain areas, beginning with the erection of more than 500 model homes. When the August 2009 typhoon ravaged Taiwan’s mountainous and riparian areas inhabited by indigenous minorities. Hsieh was entrusted by a number of charitable organizations with the task of rebuilding longstanding tribal buildings and to work toward permanent housing arrangements. Hsieh and his team rebuilt a total of 1000 homes for members of 13 different tribal groups. In 2010, he also completed work on settlements for Tibetan herders, among other projects.
Over 70% of the world’s population make their homes in rural areas. Under prevailing conditions of rapid economic development, traditional lifestyles and values are falling by the wayside. Villagers adopt techniques and materials unfamiliar to them, and are impoverished for life: the results – new houses of reinforced concrete, brick, and tile – are costly, vulnerable to earthquakes, bad for the environment, unreasonable. Architecture professionals are out of their depth in this sphere, having never so much as tested the water in this area before. Moreover, the issue of sustainable development ultimately concerns tests of survival for humanity as a whole, challenging both generally-understood operational models in contemporary architecture as well as contemporary notions of value, even aesthetics…
With these predicating thoughts, Hsieh Ying Chun and his team proclaim that modern architecture is not a narrow matter of technology; for it necessarily involves considerations of economic, sociocultural, and environmental issues. Through the use of local source materials, low-cost building strategies and appropriate technologies, as well as the design of Hsieh’s new, open, structural systems, the team has considerably lowered costs and technological thresholds. Peasant farmers are able to participate in their own modern home-building projects that also adhere to green, energy-saving, low-carbon standards, and vouchsafe the rights of members of this disadvantaged group to live and to work with dignity. At the same time, design requires flexibility; architecture must reflect the diversity of different regions and cultures.
To this end, architectural systems designed by Hsieh highlight the concept of intersubjectivity. A designer only provides a platform; from this open platform, the builder and the user can contribute to the project’s greater work, whether it be their own images of what the project can become, or a specific standpoint of culture, environment, or faith…all participants have the opportunity to develop and to reflect the rich diversity of their particular place and background.
This initial platform must be both open and simply-construct
Open Architecture
Space, structure, and structuring principles are open and flexible: they should adapt to local conditions, incorporate local resources; deploy local traditional materials and craftsmanship; and be flexible enough to shift dynamically in response to changing needs.
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Simple Construction Principles
Enable residents to use simple tools so that even those not trained in architecture can participate in the construction; respect the right of every person to life and to work with dignity; invest excess labour-power in material processing and in construction; reduce dependence on mainstream construction markets; reduce dependence on mainstream ‘currency’; simplify production facilities and equipment to decrease need for capital investment.
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Representative Works
The Ita Thao Resettlement Community
The Thao aborigines comprise the smallest population of Taiwan’s recognized indigenous minority groups. They have unique cultural traditions and customs, a unique language, well-maintained beliefs based in ancestor-worship, and rich seasonal rituals. Most of the Thao population is concentrated in Brawbaw Village on the banks of Sun Moon Lake. On September 21, 1999, a massive earthquake damaged or destroyed 80% of Thao homes in the area. To provide a base for recovering and preserving Thao culture, a resettlement community was constructed, with support from Taiwan’s Academia Sinica as well as domestic and foreign NGOs and civic groups.
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The plan for the resettlement community was organized with ceremonial spaces as the main axis, and developed in accordance with the underlying topography of the land as well as the local environment. A system of ‘work instead of charity’ was invoked to allow tribe members collectively to contribute to the labor of rebuilding the community, addressing the question of economic livelihoods, but most importantly, re-solidifying tribal consciousness through collective labor.
‘Self-Build’ Sustainable Permanent Rural Homes and Communities (Villages) in the Sichuan Earthquake Disaster Area
On May 12, 2008, Sichuan experienced an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 on the Richter scale. More than 2 million rural homes needed to be reconstructed. In the following month, Hsieh and the Rural Architecture Studio began work developing, constructing, and promoting waste-separating toilet facilities. At the end of July, they built the first model of a light-guage-steel-frame-and-adobe home. By the end of September, they had begun successively reconstructing rural homes in villages across Qingchuan, Wenchuan, and Maoxian Counties. Yangliu Village is one of the few Qiang tribal minority villages to maintain Qiang cultural and linguistic traditions. Through the use of mutual aid and labor-sharing methods among the villagers, reconstruction of 56 homes was successfully completed within the last year. Light-gauge steel frames were used in combination with traditional local building techniques; first-floor walls were built from locally-sourced and salvaged stone, second storey walls used reinforced concrete, and third-storey construction used wood. Work began from a basic ‘open’ structural layout, giving individual families a great deal of freedom to adjust plans based on their particular circumstances and requirements. Ultimately, this strategy created a harmonious balance in the overall appearance of the re-built village between standardization and diversity.
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Tribal Reconstruction after Taiwan’s Devastating “8/8” Flood (Taiwan aborigine minority groups)
In August 2009 severe mudslides, the result of violent torrential rain brought by the typhoon, occurred throughout the mountainous and riparian areas of Taiwan populated by members of the island’s various indigenous minority tribes. Hsieh Ying Chun and his team were asked by World Vision Taiwan and the Taiwan Red Cross Society to build temporary housing, and also to implement plans for permanent housing. Before the end of 2010, the team had completed reconstruction projects of 700 homes for 13 different tribal communities.
Following the disaster, many people were without work, tribal society and culture suffered from the relocation of members to new permanent housing elsewhere. In the face of these more deep rooted issues of tribal and cohesion, Hsieh’s team deployed cooperative building methods in their post-disaster reconstruction as a pragmatic solution for both issues. Hsieh’s based on light-weight C-beam steel frames activates the principle of intersubjectivity – the idea that the designer merely provide a basic platform that enables the builder and the user to share in the larger part of the project, be it their own architectural imagination, a particular traditional or cultural consideration, the environment, or faith…all these elements are released to manifest in the final product.
Due to time constraints and the massive volume of reconstruction work scheduled, participation from disaster-area residents was required at all stages of Hsieh’s work, from materials-processing to on-site assembly to construction, and became a concrete example of Hsieh’s focus on simplification of techniques and tools, and his emphasis on the importance of establishing self-sufficient local construction systems. In this manner, high-quality homes were built within a budget equivalent to 60% of prevailing market prices.
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Tibetan Herder Settlement Housing (Tibetan ethnicity)
Tibetan herders need settled quarters for their winters. Given the lengthy transport routes, severe climactic conditions, and the fact that those Tibetan areas fall within an earthquake zone, the introduction of light weight steel simple-assembly frames to traditional earthen construction upgrades earthquake resistance to a level of 9 points on the Richter scale (at 0.4 G of acceleration). Hsieh and his team used minimum of concrete and steel components, reduced the need for outside purchase and attendant transport costs; overcame the difficult problems of quality control, and succeeded in preserving local traditional earth construction and woodworking techniques that the herders themselves employed. In Namuhu Township, the team constructed an 18-household model village plus a clinic and a community activity room.
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