Event Description
Taiwan is a small island, only half the size of Ireland, having a tall range of mountains with more than 200 peaks over 3,000 meters, supporting a diverse flora of over 4,000 vascular plant species and a spectrum of 6 forest types. During Japanese rule, they carried out comprehensive surveys of forested areas and began utilizing their resources, launching infrastructure projects to turn Taiwan into Japan’s agricultural production base. Today, the government is determined to promote traces of the country’s logging industry, aiming to bring history to life through restoration and adaptive reuse.
This presentation will talk about the design & construction approach, and the challenges on revitalization and adaptive reuse of the former forestry logging site. It is the most well preserved logging settlements from Japanese occupation. There are still around 50 retired staff members living on site in 32 households, making it a real living and breathing historical village. It is in the east mountain region of Taiwan with significant influence of indigenous culture. This project aims to enhance Taiwan’s sense of community by forging stronger connections to the past while creating cultural expression, regional culture identity, economic development with sustainable operation and social interactions.
Speakers
Yenling Chen, RA, AIA, LEED AP, Founding Partner, YEN Partnership Architects
Minnie Jan, LEED AP, Founding Partner, MisoSoupDesign
Moderator: Tzen-Ying Jenny Ling, President, AIA Taipei; co-founder, Origo Workshop
CES: Estimated 1 LU/ HSW for AIA Members
Speaker Bios
Yenling Chen and her partner Yen-Yin Lin are the two founding partners of YEN Partnership Architects that is a multi-disciplinary design firm based in Taipei. YEN Partnership is focused on bringing new life and purpose to existing buildings and spaces.
Prior to YEN Partnership Architects, Yen-Ling worked for Steven Holl Architects in their New York City and Beijing offices. This included working on the Beijing Linked Hybrid Project. In Beijing, she also worked for Swire Properties as the design manager on the Indigo Commercial Complex Project.
Drawing from her life experiences living and working in Tokyo, Beijing, New York City and Taipei, Yen-Ling applies an innovative and adaptive design solutions process to her work.
She received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Tamkang University, Taiwan, and a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University, USA. Yen-Ling has been teaching architecture design studio at National Cheng Kung University as an adjunct assistant professor since 2017.
Minnie Jan and her partner Daisuke Nagatomo are the founding partners of MisoSoupDesign in Taipei. Their design incorporates new ideas with digital tectonics and sustainability approaches. MisoSoupDesign works in diverse area of design for architecture, interior, and furniture design.
Minnie Jan holds Bachelor of architecture from University of Southern California, and Master degree from Columbia University in Advanced Architectural Design. Her professional career includes large scale office project in the Middle East and India with FXfowle architects and also the 23.1 mile Dulles Corridor Metrorail project, the Silver line stations, in Washington DC area with di Domenico + Partners.
After the years of experience in New York City, she spent one year in IaaC (Barcelona, Spain) as invited researcher to develop FabLab House project to attend Solar Decathlon Europe in 2010. Jan is currently PhD candidate at the collage of design in Chung Yuan Christian University, and has taught National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan.
Moderator: Tzen-Ying Jenny Ling is a licensed architect and co-founder of Origo Workshop., a modular system service start-up company based in Singapore. She combines her position as the leader of the CReS Lab and Associate Professor in Resilience Thinking at Tamkang University. Tzen-Ying had practiced in New York after graduating from Columbia University; upon moving to Taiwan in the late 1990’s, Tzen-Ying took a post with the central government and held position as the client rep in various large-scale development projects. She founded her inter-disciplinary practice concentrating in combining small to large scale projects, coordinating within the various discipline.
She has been invited as a jury critic, lecturer and tutor in numerous institutions.
Tzen-Ying is currently based in Taipei where her practice and research received several design awards and accolades. Her work is focused on the resilience integration in the design process while showcasing how modularity is integrated early in the design phase. She is best known for 921 memorial park and the “Green Elf” vertical green system design. Tzen-Ying is currently serving as a member of the board of GSAPP Columbia and the Taipei Regional Representative for AIA International, as well as President of the newly formed AIA Taipei section since 2023.
