The largest and most informative exhibition on modern Taiwanese architecture to date is on display at the Architekturmuseum der TUM in Munich, Germany, the Ministry of Culture said on Thursday.
The exhibition, titled “Taiwan Acts! Architecture in Social Dialogue,” is to run through Oct. 3.
It was curated by Taiwanese architect Chiu Chen-yu (裘振宇) and Wang Chun-hsiung (王俊雄), chairman of Shih Chien University’s architecture department, the ministry said.
The exhibition is divided into five major themes: “Living in Yilan and creating Yilan,” “Building for local community,” “Building autonomy in architecture,” “Building for world citizens,” and “Regenerating Hsinchu,” the Taipei Representative Office in Germany’s cultural division said.
Through a display of more than 100 architectural projects, the exhibition presents the interactions between Taiwanese architects, land and society, and reflects the humanistic values of the nation, it said.
A community development initiative led by the Yilan-based architectural firm Fieldoffice Architects and its founder Huang Sheng-yuan (黃聲遠), as well as a post-disaster housing reconstruction plan led by architect Hsieh Ying-chun (謝英俊) are among the projects featured in the show, it added.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibition’s opening ceremony was held online on Wednesday, the ministry said.
At the virtual ceremony, Andres Lepik, director of the German museum, spoke about his trip to Taiwan two years ago and said that “what struck me most on the island were the people: their generosity, their openness and their warmth.”
“I sincerely believe that this exhibition talks a lot about the spirit of Taiwanese society and its relation to new and engaged architecture,” he said.
He said he hopes the exhibition will achieve the public awareness it deserves, not just within the professional scene and among students at the Technical University of Munich, but also among the museum’s general audience.
“Today is a very important day for Taiwan architecture,” Minister of Culture Lee Yung-te (李永得) said in a video.
The projects in the exhibition reflect the sustainable thinking of contemporary architecture and allow viewers to understand how architecture can transform society, he said.
They also open up opportunities for dialogue between Taiwan and the international community, he said.
“This exhibition is the first of its kind showing the contemporary building culture of Taiwan in Europe,” Chiu said in a separate video introduction to the show.
The projects selected for the exhibition are important “because they are responding to the critical challenges and difficulties of our society,” he said.
“We need to critically review the active role of architecture,” he said. “We need to see architecture as a foundation for improving the equality and sustainability of a human life.”
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