Over the past week, passersby to Taipei's Museum of Contemporary Art (
Part of an exhibition entitled Myxomycity (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"I want to show people just how simply a home can be built. You don't need to hire gangs of expensive and skilled laborers and it doesn't have to cost a fortune. Anybody can do it and everybody can afford it," explained the architect. "After all, everyone is entitled to a home, not just those with money."
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
The 60m2 building, the materials for which cost NT$200,000, is designed to the same specifications and constructed with the same materials as Hsieh employed in his somewhat controversial re-housing project in Nantou County. While that project saw scores of Shao (
"It wasn't as bad as reports made it out to be, but there was friction. It was a question of money. And I guess the cheap cost of our buildings upset a few people," Hsieh said.
Exhibition organizers initially considered using a scaled down model of Hsieh's buildings. The idea was short lived, however, with both Hsieh and curator Roan Ching-yueh (
"A model would leave on-lookers with little understanding with regards to Hsieh's concept of cheap and affordable housing," Roan said. "So we decided to go ahead and build a real one to the same specifications as those built by Hsieh's housing projects in Nantou County."
In order for Hsieh to show how simply his steel and wood structures are to construct, the labor force employed on the project is made up of volunteers from all walks of life. Salesmen, secretaries, mothers, grandfathers and even retirees have all been keen to enlist into the work-details.
Since construction work began last week, site foreman, Liu Huan-chang (劉煥成), has seen upwards of 50 volunteers. "I was surprised at the numbers of people offering to help. I mean, the weather is really hot, there's little shade and still people are turning up," Liu said.
Along with the surprisingly large number of elderly folks who have been offering their services, there has also been one instance when a 10 year-old boy turned up wanting to spend a day as a construction worker.
"Obviously he was too young to work on the site. We don't let anyone who is under 18 take part," Roan said. "We let him stay, though, and he seemed very happy to play with a paper construction model while his mother helped."
While city councilors granted permission for the construction project, they were forced to veto a request by organizers who wished to sacrifice a pig on the museum grounds as part of a traditional Aboriginal house-building ceremony late last week.
"It was quite embarrassing as we'd informed a lot of people, including the local media, about the plans to hold a traditional Aboriginal house-building ceremony," Roan said. "What we didn't know at the time, however, was it is illegal to slaughter animals within Taipei City."
The lack of a sacrificial offering doesn't appear to have enraged the Gods, however. According to Liu, if all goes to plan and the number of volunteers remains consistently high, the structure will be completed on schedule sometime in the coming week.
Once completed, organizers hope that passersby will be not only look on in wonder, but also be forced to compare their concrete-heavy cramped and expensive apartments with Hsieh's vision of affordable and easily assembled housing for the masses.
"Concrete is so ugly, expensive and has its limitations. More importantly, however, it's not environmentally friendly," Hsieh said. "Wood and such materials are natural parts of our environment, much easier to use and, of course, a lot cheaper and much nicer to look at. Which, after all, is what we're trying to say."
There are no plans to incorporate the finished building into museum property. Instead, when the current exhibition finishes on Sept. 22, the house will be dismantled and shipped down to Nantou County, where it will be re-erected as part of Hsieh's on-going re-housing project.
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry consumes electricity at rates that would strain most national grids. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) alone accounted for more than 9 percent, or 2,590 megawatts (MW), of the nation’s power demand last year. The factories that produce chips for the world’s phones and servers run around the clock. They cannot tolerate blackouts. Yet Taiwan imports 97 percent of its energy, with liquefied natural gas reserves measured in days. Underground, Taiwan has options. Studies from National Taiwan University estimate recoverable geothermal resources at more than 33,000 MW. Current installed capacity stands below 10 MW. OBSTACLES Despite Taiwan’s significant geothermal potential, the
In our discussions of tourism in Taiwan we often criticize the government’s addiction to promoting food and shopping, while ignoring Taiwan’s underdeveloped trekking and adventure travel opportunities. This discussion, however, is decidedly land-focused. When was the last time a port entered into it? Last week I encountered journalist and travel writer Cameron Dueck, who had sailed to Taiwan in 2023-24, and was full of tales. Like everyone who visits, he and his partner Fiona Ching loved our island nation and had nothing but wonderful experiences on land. But he had little positive to say about the way Taiwan has organized its
The entire Li Zhenxiu (李貞秀) saga has been an ugly, complicated mess. Born in China’s Hunan Province, she moved to work in Shenzhen, where she met her future Taiwanese husband. Most accounts have her arriving in Taiwan and marrying somewhere between 1993 and 1999. She built a successful career in Taiwan in the tech industry before founding her own company. She also served in high-ranking positions on various environmentally-focused tech associations. She says she was inspired by the founding of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in 2019 by Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), and began volunteering for the party soon after. Ko
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) returned from her trip to meet People’s Republic of China (PRC) dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) bearing “a gift” for the people of Taiwan: 10 measures the PRC proposed to “facilitate the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.” “China on Sunday unveiled 10 new incentive measures for Taiwan,” wrote Reuters, wrongly. The PRC’s longstanding habit with Taiwan relations is to repackage already extant or once-existing policies and declare that they are “new.” The list forwarded by Cheng reflects that practice. NEW MEASURES? Note the first item: establishing regular communication mechanisms between the Chinese Communist Party
RSS