This would be my third time participating in a World Expo. I've attended the Shanghai one in 2010, and the Milan one in 2015. The first one occured during my pre-architecture life, I got to experience it as a tourist with no expectations. I was blown away by the sheer scales of all the superstructures. For a high school student, it was like going to another kind of amusement park. The second one happened during my senior year while studying abroad in Spain. This one I had too much expectations, I was at the full peak of design curiosity so didn't properly calibrate my enthusiasm. I was frustrated throughout that visit whenever I could not get into the starchitects' pavilions due to the wait time of the lines. By the time I visited this third one, I've worked in the industry for 6 years, I gained some better understanding of masterplanning, architecture design, structure, details, landscape, interior design, and coordinations so there was a lot more to pay attention to this round, and not just merely chasing after all the famous pavilions. 

Architecture of Sou Fujimoto
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

We were lucky enough to visit Sou Fujimoto's first major exhibition while in town. This was a great 'pre-game' to Expo since we get to see his body of work throughout the years, and gain a deeper understanding to his design philosophy. 

The exhibition was extremely impressive, they did a compress and release technique right at the beginning, after reading his bio, you would take a left turn and be exposed to hundreds of physical models on display.
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Just wrapped up a major project deadline today so have some time to jot down some thoughts of the weekend competition before I forget some of the details. Here's a link if you want to see our winning competition entry: ​The Icon.

There have been lots of workshops on refining the design process within the firm, but theories can only take you so far, we'd still need to test things out on an actual project. Shravan and I visited the Graham Foundation for their annual book sale on a Saturday, and after that we chatted a bunch on the issues of current design process/design directions/manifestos, which ultimately led to the talk of participating in the weekend competition. And for our intent to fully realized, we'd need to recruit Wyatt so we can both test things out across all levels (Senior PA - Designer II - Intern) and at the same time, the result can effectively traverse through the levels as well. 

We spent some time simply chatting and aligning the goals about a week before the competition. It really helped us all to be on the same page. Here are couple key items that we discussed:

• The jury will judge the project on a social media platform, how do we take advantage of that.
• What are the jury and the hosting organization looking for?
• Since it's a social media based competition, the end result/product, aka the graphics have to be superb in order to win.
• How do we fulfill personal goals and the same time align with firm's design ethos?
• How do we achieve excellent quality without pulling all nighters?

Two other projects I would like to share from my recent trip back to Tainan City: Tainan Spring from MVRDV and Tainan Library by Mecanoo & MAYU Architects! Both perfectly fit the topic of public spaces / boundary / ownership in the urban context. Something interesting and "coincidental" (?) is that the Tainan City was colonized by Japan and Netherland back then, and now the city is visiting back designers from the respective countries to help improve the city.

Tainan Spring / MVRDV / 2020

The site was originally a landmark shopping mall called "Chinatown" built in 1980, but has slowly lost attraction since 1990s and caused some environmental controversy by polluting the adjacent river. 
The adaptive reuse initiative started in 2010 and eventually MVRDV proposed an urban planning scheme in 2016 called the "Tainan Axis" that aimed to revamp the entire canal area by creating a defined axis with a lagoon landscape feature.

This is the first time I've been back since 2019, I feel like in recent years, every time when I visit home, I'd apply everything I learned abroad to reinterpret and re-appreciate the beauty of Taiwan. For example, I'd study the urban planning layout and the history of certain city, and then come back and apply that same critical lens to re-think the entire heritage of Tainan City. In a sense, as I mature and hone my skillset, my hometown is also growing with me proportionally. 

With that being said, there had been lots of new architecture happening while I was gone so I got to do my rounds and check out some updates. I've done a brief blog on my city back in 2017 so make sure you check out the prequel of this blog post with the link below:
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www.hsunico.com/life/hometown-love
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​Tainan Museum / Shigeru Ban / 2019

This was one of my most anticipated one for the trip, there is just something about your hometown getting a Pritzker Prize winner building that absolutely excites me.  Shigeru Ban won the competition back in 2014 and the building was finally completed in late 2019. The massing itself stacks up as a vertical city to create elevated parks and niches that reflect on the surrounding context. The massive signature roof hovers over the "city" as a canopy that reads like a veil. This one is like a cousin of both the Centre Pompidou-Metz and the renovation project of the former architecture school in Nanterre. In terms of the spatial experience, it does remind me of the Louis Vuitton Foundation by Frank Gehry in Paris.​

Below is one of the renderings from the competition submission back in 2014 and the physical model showing the dense urban fabric in the historic quarter of the city.

'1 in the am pm'

starting over.
again.
one more time.

as thrilling as this prospect is,
and as hard as I've yearned for this,
I am left to wonder
just how many more new beginnings
will be spared to me
before I no longer long for them
anymore.

​D. Padilla

It's been a strange experience trying to navigate around in this unprecedented time since every aspect of our life is impacted by the pandemic. On one hand, everyone has to figure out a new way of maintaining their physical and mental health, on the other hand, the world still goes on so you'd have to fit in simultaneously. This applies to architecture as well, the whole typology shifted with additional design criteria mainly regards to circulation and occupancy. Many things we learned from school or design trends in the market are now outdated or not suitable anymore. However, the situation does promote a nice re-connection between humanity and the natural world with people moving outwards away from metropolis.

Back to the main topic! I was fortunate enough to reserve a spot back in July for the latest Wrightwood 659 exhibition: "Balkrishna Doshi - Architecture for the People". B. V. Doshi is the first Indian architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize back in 2018 (I was working in Taiwan during that time), and this is his first ever U.S exhibition sponsored by the Vitra Design Museum.

It's always exciting to track and follow the Pritzker Prize winner each year. It was a lot more simpler back in the school years, I had since learned that there's certain political agenda involved and there are groups of people systematically trying to promote architects to get nominated and etc., but by all means, this is not trying to discredit any laureates.

Untitled
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my bags were packed
almost to capacity
yet, when I opened them
upon arrival
as heavy as they were
I found they were completely empty
for everything that ever really, truly fucking mattered
had unfortunately been left behind.

​-D. Padilla

This blog is now entering its sixth year milestone! I haven't been keeping up since last October. Let me jump start the year with the amazing Noguchi Museum at Long Island, NYC! 

I didn't really know much about Noguchi's work before the visit, I only knew about his table collaboration with Herman Miller in 1944. The visit was absolutely phenomenal, even though it's a little bit far at Long Island, I still recommend any sculpture lover or architecture ​enthusiast to go check it out because his work is something you have to see in person to understand.

Knocking

Hello
Would please open the door?
I just want to see you again.
Walk through that corridor again
Make my way into your room again
And bury myself in the sheets
Of your bed once more.
Wake up before you
Get ready to face the world
In the quiet darkness while you sleep
And kiss you on the cheek
And whisper
“I love you. Have a good day.”
And leave before you even noticed.





Knights

Listen
I didn’t want to leave
But buses drive away
And planes take off.
Now I resent these modes of transport
They were the vessels that brought upon
The most sour of goodbyes
In the history of the universe.




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Family Heritage

I still don't quite know how
To be at peace with
The fact that
Everything in this universe
Is finite
One day
My last capable hair follicle
Will produce its final amount
Of melanin
One day
The last remaining star in space
Will fuse its final supply
Of hydrogen
And that will be
The end.

-D. Padilla