202505/06
The 4th “Tectonics of the Island” Emerging Architecture Exhibition opened at the Jhihben National Forest Recreation Area on May 6, 2025. The event was curated by the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency (FANCA) and the Taiwan Bamboo Society. For the first time, the bamboo structure art exhibition was moved from western Taiwan to the eastern part of the island, allowing the energy of bamboo construction to extend from the west coast to the east coast. At three venues in Taitung, including the Jhihben National Forest Recreation Area, Flowing Lake at the Taitung Forest Park, and the Taromak indigenous community, a total of six bamboo structures were set up where mountains and seas meet. The works demonstrate the cultural features of Taiwan’s east coast and its close bond with the natural environment.
The FANCA stated that it has been collaborating with the Taiwan Bamboo Society since 2011 in order to integrate domestic bamboo into cultivation and skill transmission for architectural design talent. The first and second “Bamboo Architecture and Forest Railway Emerging Design Exhibitions” made a break through in bamboo joinery design, while the third exhibition delivered “Tectonics of the Island” that brought the craft closer to people’s lives. This year’s exhibition addresses deeper issues—the exploration of people and land, the zeitgeist, and exploration of real architecture, so that bamboo construction is no longer just a stacking of materials, but an application of land, life and future imagination.
Hsu Pei-Hsien, Chairman of the Taiwan Bamboo Society and Director of the Graduate Institute of Architecture at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, said, “After four bamboo exhibitions, with the involvement of more than 100 collaborators including architects and structural engineers, I think we have accumulated enough impetus and knowledge to push the contemporary practice of bamboo architecture forward. This also includes the relevant technical resources, regulations, policies, and industrial chain behind the implementation of bamboo architecture. As a building material, bamboo involves many detailed processes starting from its place of origin to anti-corrosion treatment, bending, and other processing. As long as we have a sufficient understanding of the characteristics of the material, bamboo can also be combined with innovative construction methods to change the view that buildings are unsustainable, and achieve results that combine visual aesthetics with structural safety.”
The exhibition is divided into three exhibition areas. There are four sets of works in the Jhihben National Forest Recreation Area, including “Bamboo Butterfly”, which resembles a butterfly perched beside the Haohanpo Trail. The work, created by architect Eric Chen, is built from a bamboo composite material that was formed by gluing slices of moso bamboo together. The core of the structure is a Y-shaped arch column made from clustered makino bamboo, forming a poetic tensile balance that defies the thin covering. Ko Mu-Yi, who explores multiple disciplines from architecture to butoh and theater arts, created “mupangca’ gana varasa’,” inspired by the Puyuma creation myth that “life originated from a rock.” The frame structure is intertwined with stones, yellow rattan, and hemp ropes as means for binding and tensioning, and finally covered with cogon grass, linking the building to the indigenous ceremonial culture. Chen Szu-Yin proposed a design for her work “Being” that blurs the boundaries between the house and the wall. She is an ecological building creator who integrates Southeast Asian bamboo building techniques in an attempt to break away from the Taiwanese bamboo construction style. The skirt-like bamboo eaves in the elevated pavilion create a semi-sheltered feeling for the interior space, evoking a serene sense of ease. The Association of Humanitarian Architecture, whose member include indigenous people, bamboo craftsmen, and students, has opened up “Third Place” on the edge of the forest. It applies the bamboo binding off concept used in indigenous bamboo baskets and fishing vessels to form units. The dome is composed of hundreds of rings formed by bamboo clusters. The sheer cloth covering the outside of the structure reveals the bamboo rings with the luminescence of the indoor lighting, resembling a giant glowing ladybug from a distance at night.
Other works include “Pataminaan” located on the shore of Taitung Forest Park’s Flowing Lake—the first-ever waterfront bamboo structure. It was built by architect Wang Pe-Jen who collected the long-shoot bamboo himself and based the structure on the concept of the “outrigger canoe.” The bamboo structure combines two 12-meter metal containers, where the roofs of the containers are connected by bamboo bridges, resembling a ship overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the peaks of Sakakivan (Mt. Beinan).There is also “Irilriya”, meaning “pavilion” in the Rukai (Drekay) language, located in the Taromak indigenous community. It was built by Ahung i Masikadd, a Puyuma master bamboo structure craftsman, who is also an expert in the field of ecological building. He turned his memory and skills of bamboo building into a contemporary structural expression. From the eight core columns, funnel stone foundation, and eight outer supporting columns to the apex of the roof, force converges from all directions to the center, showing a spirit of cohesion and unity. The site is surrounded by mountains on three sides, where seven or eight bamboo species grow in abundance. These include spiny bamboo (Bambusa spinosa), long-shoot bamboo (Bambusa dolichoclada), sweet bamboo (Dendrocalamus latiflorus), and blowpipe bamboo (Bambusa dolichomerithalla). In addition to being convenient for sourcing local materials, it has great potential for development into a bamboo craft hub.
Exhibition curator and architect Yeh Yuh-Sin observed, “In addition to responding to the characteristics of the site and climatic conditions, the designers tried to convey more cultural awareness, especially the perspective of indigenous culture, which added a compelling touch to the bamboo structures. The moso bamboo used by the group led by Chien Chih-Ming, Executive Director of the Association of Humanitarian Architecture, was sourced from the Hongshi Forest Trail in Haiduan, Taitung. They made a bold attempt to preserve the bamboo by soaking it in Zhiben Hot Spring (sodium bicarbonate spring). With the assistance of the FANCA Taitung, the experiment was ultimately successful, enabling the smooth production of curved bamboo beams. This groundbreaking achievement not only takes a different path from the traditional anti-corrosion technology used in western Taiwan, but also fully demonstrates the possibilities and smart application of natural resources in eastern Taiwan.”
The FANCA stated that bamboo is one of the natural land resources in Taiwan with the greatest vitality due to its rapid growth, vigorous reproductive capacity, wide range of uses, and higher carbon sequestration capacity than ordinary wood. However, the application of bamboo has its own special set of challenges. Compared to wood, bamboo design and processing entail more difficulties due to factors such as irregularity, non-homogeneity, and hollowness of the material. We hope to connect three key groups through the design and implementation of bamboo structures: bamboo experts, architectural designers, and the general public, as to pass down the heritage, innovate, and market Taiwan’s bamboo culture and industrial development. This will allow the culture of Taiwan’s bamboo structures to advance from experiment to practice, and from aesthetics to daily life.