
Tseng-Yung Wang Director of Bigda Studio
Chun-Hsiung Wang Director, Department of Architectural Design, Shih Chien University
DH Café (No. 153, Section 3, Zhongshan North Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City)
One lecture for $500, including special snacks (sandwiches, desserts, drinks), and 10% discount on event book purchases.
After World War II, Taiwan's architecture underwent profound changes, with an impact that has not been closed to date. First, the historicism of the prewar architectural mainstream was replaced almost overnight by modernist architecture. Secondly, the construction professionals were mainly occupied by Japanese people before the war, and the vacuum left behind by Japanese people after the war, was mostly occupied by people from mainland Taiwan after the relocation of the National People's Government. Moreover, there was no professional system of architects before the war, and with the advent of post-war rule by the People's Government, it was imposed in Taiwan. Finally, university architecture education, which was unheard of before the war, also emerged in Taiwan. This series of lectures uses this historical change as a scripture, covering four themes of Modernism, Christian Architecture, Roughism, and Chinese Modern Architecture, and attempts to open up a discussion of this little-noticed history of architecture. The theme is “Theme 1: Rude and Poetic Post-War Architecture in Taiwan - Rugged Architecture in Taiwan”.
In the 1970s, Brutalism—or the béton brut movement—emerged as a global architectural revolt. Less a codified “ism” than a reaction against Modernism’s ethos and formal constraints, Brutalism championed raw materiality and unapologetic structural expression. Taiwan's Brutalist examples are remarkably diverse: the aforementioned chapel at St. Joseph Technical High School, Taipei Medical College’s Laboratory Building, Penghu’s Golden Dragon Cave Youth Center, Tainan’s Tsengwen Youth Activity Center, Luoshao Villa, Yilan’s Sijie Presbyterian Church, the old Weidao High School Chapel, and Academia Sinica’s Library of American Studies.
These structures transcended mere functionality, embedding emotional resonance for both designers and users. As an offshoot of Modernism’s evolution, Taiwan’s "Brutalist wave" waned post-1970s—but never truly ended. The movement persists wherever architects resurrect its dynamic, proving its enduring vitality.