Author: Administrator

taiwan has no architecture (6): the add on

back when i still lived in lukang, one of the neighborhood uncles attempted to describe taiwanese domestic architecture to me. he said,

no matter how big the builders make it, you discover that the house will never have enough room. because once taiwanese people move in, they will add window cages and, of course, they’ve got to put a metal siding structure on top of the roof

the uncle was joking but at the same time pointing out something that he found a real aesthetic flaw among taiwanese people. i will try to avoid making such judgments (even as i present them)

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the architecture of making do (5): surfaces

like commercial architectures in urban taiwan, domestic architecture in taipei depends a great deal on surfacing

older brick and timber structures, now a relative rarity in taipei, are often surfaced with plaster, concrete, and the ubiquitous metal siding. and of course, metal siding appears in countless add-ons: as roofing, enclosures, rooftop additions, and supplemental covering over leaking concrete roofs

and how could we talk about domestic architecture in urban taiwan without mentioning tile?

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how i learned to 混

各位朋友各位同仁好

我是音樂學所的施永德，您可以叫我阿德

今天要討論的是

how i learned to 混

It turns out that I only began seriously to do hybrid learning because of a situation out of my control: in february 2020, with the pandemic raging in the united states, the berklee college of music, where I was teaching previously, went completely remote. suddenly, I had to think about students living in several different time zones

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the architecture of making do (4): window cages

superficial viewers of taipei’s urban architectures often express curiosity about the prevalence of window cages

why, these visitors ask, are there bars around windows on the seventh floor? are taipei people that afraid of theft?

(in these moments i must remind myself not to roll my eyes or to say, clearly you’ve never made any friends here)

for those who wonder about the window cages, let’s take a closer look

window cages create extra space, particularly for those who lack a porch or balcony
window cages create extra space, particularly for those who lack a porch or balcony

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taiwan has no architecture? (3): architectures of exclusion

for a country that prides itself on its friendliness to outsiders, hospitality, and openness, taiwan presents a surprisingly unfriendly and closed off face in much of its urban domestic architecture

once one leaves major commercial streets for residential lanes and alleys, tall walls–often topped with bars, concertina wire, and broken bottles for added deterrence–shout “keep away” to the passerby. added to the narrowness of these urban lanes, the walls feel as if they lean in and push a would be flaneur on. but don’t worry–there’s not much to see here anyway. or is there?

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taiwan has no architecture? (2): covered walkways

in the last installment of this series, i kvetched a bit about people who complain that taiwan has no architecture. in response, in this series of blog posts will look at what i call the architecture of making do–mostly the kind of vernacular architecture that one sees in the alleys of taipei and other urban areas on taiwan

however, i thought that i should begin with the most public and characteristic feature of taiwanese urban spaces, the architecture of covered pedestrian walkways 騎樓 cilou （also known as 亭仔腳 teng-a ka) found on major commercial thoroughfares Continue reading “taiwan has no architecture? (2): covered walkways”

taiwan “doesn’t have architecture?”

 

an architecture of making do

often when someone says something ignorant, i just want to let it go. after all, it’s really not my purpose in life to enlighten people, particularly so-called expats with colonialist attitudes

but this time, the ignorant remark about taiwan “having no architecture” stayed with me. for a couple weeks, this remark continued to annoy me, like a pebble in my shoe. i decided to shake it out and make some sort of reply–and well, as you all know, my research interests include vernacular domestic architecture

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back to alignment

it’s been quiet, i know, in this blog for awhile. there are a few reasons for the lack of posts–overall, covidtide was not particularly fertile time for me as a blogger. in addition, i was busy with a number of creative, pedagogical, and writing tasks that took me away from blogging toward the work of getting an installation done for the taipei biennial, teaching remotely, and going through editors’ comments

nonetheless, over the past few months, i have been developing again a nearly daily yoga practice

as some of you know, i’ve been practicing ashtanga yoga for awhile; however, when a shoulder injury made vinyasa somewhat undesirable, i had to reset my practice. so, i turned to the kind of yoga with which i began, iyengar yoga

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虛擬座談會： walsh and mignolo 2018 去殖民性 decoloniality

一個學年結束，便有空多看一些研究論文和書籍，所以想邀請你們跟我討論

虛擬座談會…之類的

記得研究所時期，當我遇到新概念，我經常到處都會看到它各種足跡，總覺得，任何脈絡或情況都可以應用它。後來才慢慢發現，若一個概念那麼普及–什麼都可以詮釋，到處都可以應用–它的價值，其實極有限

我們用的概念–主權、反抗、情感、文化都如此，你不覺得呢？

so what about coloniality / decoloniality?

無可否認，殖民／去殖民 可以讓我們更了解台灣原住民族和台灣其他族群的生活、部落歷史、及社會文化運動和困境

但是我還有點怕說，「殖民學」、「後殖民學」的論點和方法，完全適合台灣，那，如果不適合，要如何調整或者補？

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