SYLLABUS

Interest
Taiwan, a small island located just southeast side of China. Surrounded by oceans, Taiwan is one of the most crowded countries in Asia. At the north tip of Taiwan there is the city of Taipei.
Taipei city lies inside of the bawl-shaped Taipei Basin, the climate is warm all year round, and since the city is surrounded by mountains, the humidity of the ocean gets trapped within the city, which makes the city extra hotter.

As one of the most populated cities in Asia, Taipei is also the capital of Taiwan, a country that its culture, and its economic success are often overshadowed by its political unstableness. After going through years of invasion, colonization, and the civil war between the Nationalist and the Communist that brought in a large amount of Chinese immigrants during the 50s, Taiwan is now at the verge of either declaring its independence or unification with China.

Whether it is independence or unification, it is crucial that the younger generation of Taiwanese people establish Taiwan’s unique identity through every way possible. Not only to the world but also more importantly to themselves.

This project will be my physical and psychological journey through the city of Taipei, to find out the possibilities of what Taipei should and could be. My conscious will be delivered through different state/ stage of water, since water has close relationship with Taiwan geographically, culturally and philosophically. This will be a project of seeing the visions of Taipei as it is, and imagining what it can be.

This project will also explore the relationship between physical and imaginary states of spaces, and find out how the solid definition of space can be blurred through imagination, in which to prove that architecture can be less than solid, and dreams can be tangible.

Process
Research
This project will start out with a research of Taiwan and Taipei on its history, culture, geography, and climate. Providing a brief background and understanding for this project.
The research will also investigate water’s relationship to Taiwan, and its significance to this project.

Poetic Delivery
This project will be expressed through narratives, poetry, and writings about the spaces/ sites visited; the writings will be in both English and Mandarin Chinese. Writings are required with each places visited both on describing the feelings discovered in these places, and also the narrator’s emotional understanding of the space/ site. The writings will also provide a projection of the narrator’s imagination when visiting the space/ site.

Visual Delivery
There should be composite drawings, collages, or any type of visual representation of the writings produced every week, these drawings could be revisit and/ or modify throughout the term.

Product
Blog
A Blog will be created for this project to which the writings and visual representations will be posted weekly for feedbacks and discussion. Each Blog entry should provide a brief description of the space/ site visited along side with the poetic adaptation and visual adaptation of the space/ site.

Book
The final product for this project will be a book consisting the writings and the images created throughout the term, the format of the book will also coincide with the ideas expressed in the writings and the images as needed.
The final book will be mailed to Portland State for a final review.