Chien Hsueh-yi Builds a Life in Architecture

Cathy Teng　/　photos Lin Min-hsuan　/　tr. by David Mayer

August 2026

中文

00:00

photo by Liu Chen-hsiang, courtesy of National Culture and Arts Foundation

In the entranceway to the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park, there stand a number of bare concrete walls of varying heights. Daylight filtering between the walls suggests a glimmer of hope amid the otherwise oppressive atmosphere.

Once you step into the Yingge Ceramics Museum, which stands beside a provincial highway, the noisy world is shut out, and the only thing left is the play of light and shadow inside the space.

Wandering through the staggered staircases and corridors of the Humanities Building at National Taiwan University (NTU), one senses a different spatial experience with each and every step.

These are some of the special spaces that have been created by Chien Hsueh-yi, principal at Chien Architects & Associates. He’s always designed more than just buildings; rather, it’s been a way to look upon the world, and to feel space.

The language of modernism

This insistence originates in Chien’s firm belief in modernism. “Modernist architecture seeks to shed light on the essence of architecture while also engaging in a discussion of rationality.” For Chien, the essence of architecture lies not in form and ornamentation, but in materials, structure, and space.

His designs have always dispensed with superfluous decorative elements and coverings. Instead, he has preferred to let structure serve as the “expressive elements” of a building. He has a soft spot in his heart for the simplicity of exposed concrete, which he feels best shows the material’s texture.

Around the midpoint of his career, he began using large quantities of steel to create longer spans. The suspended roofs over the Taipei Tennis Center and the southwest entrance to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum both demonstrate how structural steel elements provide both strength and beauty.

In recent years, he has introduced wooden elements into his designs, such as the large timber-framed canopies at the new Chiayi Train Station and the Hsinchu County Museum of Fine Arts. The large wooden elements not only add a warm touch to his works, but also respond to the environment and local culture.

The long steel roof spans at the Taipei Tennis Center allow for a large open space free of vertical supports, creating a beautiful sports dome. (photo by Cheng Chin-ming, courtesy of Chien Architects & Associates)

A star, but not a prima donna

Many architects treat a building as the “star of the show,” but Chien has the mindset of a director. He has likened a building to the stage of a theater, which provides a scene where all sorts of different lives, activities, and stories play out.

But after an event concludes and the audience goes its way, the architecture does not lose its reason for being. Space itself brims with power. Chien uses “spatial potential energy,” a term borrowed from physics, to explain that even when there is no human activity taking place within a given space, that space can still resonate with people, quietly influencing their emotions and feelings. A building, says Chien, “is like a big-name actor who doesn’t hog the spotlight.”

The Yingge Ceramics Museum uses large glass curtain walls to bring in natural light, creating rich layers of light and shadow for the ceramic works on display.

The upper stories of the buildings in this social housing project on Yuxian Road in Taichung’s Taiping District are linked by bridges, creating shared public spaces for interaction. It is the first social housing project to win a Taiwan Architecture Award. (photo by Cheng Chin-ming, courtesy of Chien Architects & Associates)

How space draws us in

The NTU Humanities Building, which took 18 years to complete, perhaps best represents Chien’s 40 years of architectural thinking. Where historic buildings intersected with urban blocks, he reorganized the relationship between people and the campus, and between people and the city, to address all possible concerns.

The building’s west wing, in the form of a bridge-like suspended structure with a huge 55-meter span, perfectly frames one’s view of the NTU Agricultural Exhibition Hall (nicknamed on campus as “Holey Hall”), triggering a dialogue between different generations of architecture, and signaling a salute to the hall’s designer, Chang Chao-kang.

Even more fascinating is the feeling as you move around the Humanities Building. Split-level staircases, verandas, and walkways link spaces into something resembling a courtyard residence. Every turn, passage, and pause changes the scenery before your eyes, while the space unfolds in layers.

Despite his gray hair, Chien’s eyes light up with unbridled enthusiasm when he talks about architecture.

At the Hsinchu County Museum of Fine Arts, applying the concept of an “open art museum,” Chien created a space that is close to nature under the cover of a long-span wooden roof. The design won first prize in a design competition. (courtesy of Chien Architects & Associates)

Ever the idealistic youth

Always dressed in black, Chien discusses architecture in slow and measured tones.

We see clearly that beneath the low-key black attire, through 40 years the young man with a fierce devotion to architecture hasn’t lost his fire.

Structure is no longer something to be hidden away, but now provides the “expressive elements” of architecture. The clean lines of steel structures are an important element in Chien’s architectural vocabulary.

Peoplescape Daxi Pavilion

What was once a neighborhood laundry drying area on a street corner in Daxi has been transformed into the “Peoplescape Daxi Pavilion.” On a narrow lot, Chien uses light, shadow, and spatial transitions to create a compact yet engaging exhibition space. Reinterpreting traditional architectural vocabulary in a contemporary form, the building offers a model for spatial revitalization in Daxi.

Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park

The entrance to the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park (a campus of the National Human Rights Museum) uses the imagery of ruins to symbolize the subversion of authority.

台北市立美術館

台北市立美術館南（西）向入口增建，以管狀結構與玻璃帷幕延續原建築語彙，並透過通透的立面與周邊綠意相互呼應。（竹間聯合建築師事務所提供，李國民攝）

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National Museum of Taiwan History

The National Museum of Taiwan History, completed after 12 years of work, responds through architecture to the mixing of Taiwan’s diverse ethnic groups over time. The landscaping and spatial planning of the site help visitors to interpret the story of Taiwan. The museum received an honorable mention at the 2012 Taiwan Architecture Awards.

National Museum of Taiwan History

Telling Taiwan’s story through architecture

The museum’s entrance calls to mind the arrival of settlers who crossed the sea in centuries past, then visitors are presented with a “Kunshen” theme (alluding to the Tainan area), a “cloud wall” (a reference to the blue skies and soaring clouds that greeted the early immigrants), and a section on the theme of integration.

Translation of stilt house architecture

The building is supported by sets of three angled posts, in a nod to the stilt house architecture of the Indigenous peoples.

Building materials reflect diverse cultures

The precast concrete exterior panels contain crushed shale, traditionally used in Indigenous architecture, and crushed red brick, commonly used in Hokkien and Hakka architecture.

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NTU Humanities Building

The National Taiwan University Humanities Building took 18 years to complete. It fits in with the history of the NTU campus by connecting together the school gate, the historic Agricultural Exhibition Hall, and the surrounding urban space, thus transforming the complex site into an open and interactive cultural space. It won first prize at the 2024 Taiwan Architecture Awards.

A stage for public interaction

A long-span sky bridge and a sunken staircase create a public space that resembles a stage where teachers and students can interact or quietly observe the “Holey Hall” directly in front of them. The space triggers a dialogue between different generations of architecture.

Connecting campus and city

To fit in with the different spatial contexts around the site, Chien used red bricks to echo the historic feel of the NTU campus, and used open staircases to connect the campus with the city.

Discovering the layered subtlety of space

The split-level corridors, staircases, and verandas prompt people to constantly change perspective as they move. Discovering the layered complexity of the environment is a bit like peeling an onion—peel all you want, there’s always another layer, and another.