The City Beyond Architecture. Sheng-Yuan Huang and the work of Fieldoffice Architects in Yilan, Taiwan.

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The world of today is changing. The center of development has moved to Asia, where more than half of the world’s urban population is already living. In the future, Asian settlements will outnumber those of other continents. And, most interestingly, the Far East’s urbanization has nothing to do with what happened in the West, where suburbanism has finally come to dominate the landscape and the lives of most people. In Asia, activities are all mixed, and one can find agricultural production sitting side by side with housing, temples, or high-tech factories. It is a new kind of mixitè and, if properly managed, it looks the like of something more sustainable than a European or American periphery.

In this context, there is another thing that just started to develop. It is a public space capable of structuring this particular landscape and provide both social spaces and a sense of identity to the place. In a way, it is developing what landscape urbanism has been theorizing for some time. But here, it is a concrete matter, especially in places the like of Taiwan, where some form of public participation in politics is possible. It is the like what happened at the onset of the Tessiner architecture school in South Switzerland, or the times of the Barcelona Olympics in Catalunya, those unique occurrences of city-making where innovations of planning or design have been put forward and shaped new forms of urbanism. But here, it is something that ‘resonates’ with what most of the future urban world may be.

Sheng-Yuan Huang and his colleagues of Fieldoffice are the avant-garde of this architectural movement, which is producing a new form of collective living in terms of design and culture. They are also those that somehow test new planning and design systems, i.e., experiments from where we can learn about what the Asian city and landscape may be. In the light of it, this book is a first attempt to frame the work of Fieldoffice in terms of city-making, but also highlight those aspects of the urban design process that can offer reference to planners and designers around the world. Indeed, ultimately, the work of Sheng-Yuan Huang and Fieldoffice is a reflection on what any real city is.

introduction-

Taiwan, Yilan, and Mr. Huang for dummies
essay by Alessandro Martinelli, page 11
+
How does planning work around Mr. Huang?
essay by Alessandro Martinelli and Wei-Bin Chen, page 27
+
Fieldoffice and the change of Taiwan architecture
essay by Chun-Hsiung Wang, page 43

Floating-
a photographic study of Fieldoffice aesthetics-
page 52-

Interview 1a
Fieldoffice, inside
Sheng-Yuan Huang
page 69

The times and spaces of Fieldoffice work-
a chrono-spatial map-
page 88-

Interview 1b
Fieldoffice, outside
Sheng-Yuan Huang
page 93

The one and many spaces-
an architectural plan of Yilan’s public space-
page 110-

Interview 2a
Almost a decade in Fieldoffice
Vincent Kuo, senior architect at Fieldoffice
page 129

The office is a city-
a visual investigation of Fieldoffice workspace-
page 134-

Interview 2b
More than a year in Fieldoffice
Jimmy Chen, architect at Fieldoffice
page 149

Wanderlust-
a photographic narrative across Yilan-
page 154-

Interview 3a
Notes from the architecture world
Chun-Hsiung Wang, Shih Chien University
page 183

Fieldoffice by paper-
a reasoned catalog of Fieldoffice books-
page 196-

Interview 3b
Notes from the landscape architecture world
Monica Kuo, Chinese Culture University
page 203

In the manner of Fieldoffice’s speaking-
a reprint of selected Fieldoffice reports-
page 216-

Interview 3c
Notes from the institutions
Shengfong Lin, Central Government
page 251

A three steps epilogue-
conclusive remarks-
page 263-

Interview 4
Before and after Fieldoffice
Sheng-Yuan Huang
page 271

The City Beyond Architecture. Sheng-Yuan Huang and the work of Fieldoffice Architects in Yilan, Taiwan.

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• ISBN

  9788832080117

• Title

  The City Beyond Architecture. Sheng-Yuan Huang and the work of Fieldoffice Architects in Yilan, Taiwan.

• Author

  Alessandro Martinelli

• Publisher

  ListLab Publisher

• Publication year

  2020

• Binding

  Softcover

• Language

  English