Hsieh Ying-chun (; born 1954 in

Taichung County Taichung County was a County (Taiwan), county in central Taiwan between 1945 and 2010. The county seat was in Yuanlin Township before 1950 and Fengyuan District, Fongyuan City after 1950. History Taichung County was established on 26 November ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

) is a Taiwanese

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and contractor. In his socially engaged work Hsieh has been helping people rebuild their homes since the devastating

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

in Taiwan 1999, when his reconstruction project for the

Thao people The Thao/Ngan () are a small group of Taiwanese indigenous peoples who have lived near Sun Moon Lake (Zintun, Lake Candidius) in central Taiwan for at least a century, and probably since the time of the Qing dynasty. The Thao/Ngan people numbere ...

gained him international recognition. Hsieh organized the reconstruction of housing and communities in disaster-struck areas while faced with two challenges: to build houses within an extremely tight budget (25%-50% of the market price) and to base the projects on the notion of sustainable construction, green building, cultural preservation and creation of local employment opportunities. Hsieh has played a key role in rebuilding communities for Taiwan's

Indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

. In more recent years, Hsieh has continued to help people build their own houses, from the remote villages of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

to the sufferers of the South East Asian

Tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

. :''When we face the future challenge of environmental crisis, a one-dimensional technical thought process is inadequate; the considerations must be broadened to cultural, economical, and environmental levels.'' Hsieh represented Taiwan in the Venice Architecture Biennale 2006 and Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art 2009. Hsieh is part of the architectural team WEAK! together with Roan Ching-yueh and

Marco Casagrande Marco Mario Paolo Casagrande (born 7 May 1971) is a Finnish architect, environmental artist, architectural theorist, former mercenary, writer and professor of architecture. He graduated from Helsinki University of Technology department of arch ...

. The WEAK! operates an independent architectural research centre Ruin Academy as their headquarters in Taipei. The Curry Stone Design Prize 2011 was awarded to Hsieh to champion the designer as a force of social change building more than 3 000 homes with local people in natural disaster zones in Taiwan and mainland China.

References

External links

Atelier 3 homepage

Hsieh Ying Chun: Sustainable Construction in Community
* Robin Peckham, Kunsthalle Kowloon, 2009
Cicada
edit. Nikita Wu, SZHK Biennale 2009
WEAK!
Architecture News Plus, 2010
Knight-Errant of Homeless (2009-01)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hsieh, Ying-Chun 1954 births Taiwanese architects Living people People from Taichung