BY ERIC CHEN
PUBLIC LECTURE
As we can see, Eric Chen is very sensitive with the relationship of the surrounding context and the senses of our human body. His philosophy of practicing architecture is to become a nomad, to think that edges are not limits but a possibility to pull out the biggest tension of both ends, and practice the creation
carefully in between : architecture and art, buildings and construction equipment, body and senses.
From every work he shared to us and the experience while working next to him, I can feel that he is a
very caring and sensible architect which holds a passionate craftsmanship. He once told me, “Every
lines on the drawings are important because they are all measured by weight and temperature.”
Understanding this few words on texts is easy, but to experience them on site, it’s a different level of
apperception.
Last November, Mr. Teoh Chee Keong led a team of UCSI SABE students (sem 1, sem 2 and sem 3) to
participate the Johor Publik Art Workshop. I was lucky enough to be selected and participate with
them. At there, I met Eric Chen, and was lucky enough again to be selected to join his group in the
workshop. Eric Chen and Mr.Teoh studied in the same architecture school in Taiwan, and had a good
relationship as junior and senior. Eric Chen is currently the visiting Professor of UCSI University. He studied
Philosophy of fine art at the Tainan National University of the Arts in the early years then he studied
Architecture at Chung Yuan Christian University. He is also the current Assistant Professor at Chung Yuan Architecture School and a lecturer at Tam Kang University. He founded ArchiBlur Lab in 2015, and since
then he had his works exhibited at Taiwan, China, Japan, Malaysia, France, Dubai and has won several awards and recognition.
Eric Chen founded ArchiBlur Lab (共感地景創作) in October 2015. Via actual artistic practices, the studio
explores relationships between architects and “empathy” of body and landscape. Through the
repetitive intervention and formation of physicality, it also considers a possibility of forming another way of watching and putting a body via another interface, the conversion of material, the errors in
connective points, and the location of the body. In such a way, these factors can be embodied
“empathy” of forming material texture, forming forces and common movements. Major projects of
ArchiBlur Lab include: Urban Archipelago Projects, Floating Mountains, Landscape Designs for Xincen
Community of Chiayi, Light Ponds, Floating Field, Collectivism and etc.
Made as drifting platforms that can fill urban spaces, the “Urban Archipelago projects” trying to
develop a new architectural scale that is able to drift and change between the body, the city, and the landscape, transforms different areas into theaters, school zones and stages. Built with a combination of tectonic elements and formal conditions, the designs investigate the capacity of people to engage
with evolving urban morphologies and different methods of making art. The main intention of the
project according to Eric Chen is to redefine spaces that are easily ignore or forgotten by people. He
hopes to create spaces and community activities that can gather people and brings them back about the cultural and historical context that most people are unaware of. The spaces created then formed a new relationship between human body and landscape.
They are pavilions, a temporary architecture that have wheels installed at the bottom so they can be
easily move to planned location. The form of the architecture can be disassembled and transform into
new functions and spaces reflecting to the environment and surrounding human culture and activity.
The basic constructions are inspired by Taiwan’s night streets where a hob, a corrugated metal roof, a
table and some stools bring otherwise deserted sidewalks and spaces to life.
A system of lightweight metal struts and plastic panels are assembled to create small, lightweight kiosks, which are used as exhibition galleries, graphic production centres, and temporary radio stations. In the night, these little buildings stands out in the city thanks to the artificial light that filters through their white
translucent shell. New routes and social relationships are created by this network of objects and also
reinterprets the transitory nature of Taiwan’s urban space.
This program that has been reinterpreted on a case by case basis therefore creates endless possibilities
for this project. Local organizations have helped to construct the choice of activity, creating communitygardens and clinics. The creation of several elements also commissioned as part of a festival or public
event. Eric Chen describes the strategy of these drifting islands as the meeting point where familiar forms(the roof, the window, the wall, the door), that belong to the architectural tradition, converge with the aesthetic tradition of assembling simple materials, which is instead typical of the spontaneity of urban
life.
“Weight can be felt, but does feeling have weight?”
The architectural device created through the consideration of these starting points is an experiential
work. It changes the weight of the space into which it is placed, symbiotically creating an elastic state. On the other hand, it responds to each body entering the state of the artwork. Continuous Rain shows
different marginality and temporality for the inside and outside of space; the clouds have light contrast and are difficult to touch; the directionality of the rain’s response is continuous like the changing
landscape, so that the artificial and nature can both have sound, tactile sense, and warmth, full of the poetic sense of matter.
Floating Island was compressed out from the ocean surface, and exists for cutting off all regular
connections. The invisible and thick-bottomed continuity, the changing water level and margins of
elevation are extremely far but also extremely close, possessing conversions of different scales and
environmental views on the outside and on the inside. Suspension Bridge exists for connections,
exploring the location of bodies, delineating the boundary between the natural and the artificial.
Lightly touch the earth, as weight is presented as light swaying, with immediate and hand-related
considerations of space.
Lightness and heaviness respond to the body, not only cutting but also connecting, for contemplation
of the nature of architecture.
“2016 Floating Mountain” is a landscape work that is different from the design of object, and it uses
construction of layers to form the environment. Eric Chen attempt to create not only an object, but a
landscape inviting people to physically experience the place. Three different levels of landscape are
formed through on-site observations and practices to discuss about the opening of border and
enlightenment to pics about publicness. This work not only pens hardware border, but also opens
perception border.
Physical construction forms a field of interactions and exchanges to enable every audience
participating in construction to create value of publicness of joint operation. The first level of the three
levels of landscape enable audiences to enter the formed space to perceive the change of time,
moving people in the environment, and plants bearing time and natural power. The construction of
space becomes a landscape, and forms the facial expression of a landscape.
The second level is the display of power of construction, and uses the point-by-point control of
horizontal force to enable every circular space element to create moving tension of materials. In
addition to forming the structural relationship of large space and every curved pattern, the second levelalso enable power from different dimensions to stack on it to create an extensive relationship of
movement. The transfer of power enables physical sensations to connect with a place far away, with
other people, and with the surrounding environment, as well as enables power in the environment, such as wind and light to form the facial expression of light through construction.
The third level is the bridge body at two ends of the edge that is seemingly hung from ground to create a new horizon and form important structural bridge body at two sides, which supports every circular
flexible element and also forms cohesive landscapes and marginal landscapes at different heights. The transfer of power constructs a light and floating field to bring audiences to new relationship formed by
different heights and environment.
共感地景創作｜ArchiBlur Lab
Urban Archipelago Projects
Floating Island
Floating Mountain
