taipei / longshan temple, xinmending

pink flowers everywhere at the longshan temple in the old town. lanterns and incense sticks. it was the birthday of the goddess - so i was told. matsu- the goddess of the sea. two streets away in an alley opposite the night market- the red light area of the city. large posters of pink women. 

at ximending, the young of taiwan walk around in their splendor saturday afternoon. girls wearing cardboard boxes promote a rock band that performed later at the square. i wanted to get my ear pierced and forgot. 

taipei / national university, treasure hill

the first destination was the university where red brick american style buildings overlooked a large palm lined mall and kids hung out drinking coffee. from there we walked to treasure hill from where you can see the city against the flyovers and the mountains. like the slum in bandra been gentrified into an art district. the temple was alive with activity and distributed free food. the art work was scattered among the tiny houses turned studios while the odler residents lived in tiny houses around still. 

National Art Museum, Taichung

Massively overscaled for the exhibition that it housed. Empty pavilions that meander endlessly on two levels within and a huge 'art map' of the world on the facade. an e-info pavilion outlines the concept of the museum extension (why in the world?) with the kind of platitudes that us architects love- "blurring the inside and the outside".. etc. but the park is nice and as far as the museum is concerned i guess-- if you build it- they will come- seems to be the philosophy.

the buddhist temple modernized/ taichung

largely skipping the high modernism of le corbusier and importing a semi fascist modernist classicism to best represent the rule of martial law, taiwan seems to have been on the margins of international architectural discourse. today with the swirls and swoops of most projects done in schools or seen on the internet, i wonder how long that will last. a protectionist policy towards foreign architects working in the country seems to keep the worst excesses at bay. although the over swirled library in taichung makes a good case for zaha in the original rather than an 'almost' copy. yet, in architecture schools and in so many new buildings a 'good taste' seems to be quite common. a pared down modernism- the kind that architects love- the kind that echoes the great masters. like the corbusier-ed version of a buddhist temple- a far cry from the red and gold glories that are dotted around the cities. instead we have a exposed concrete pavilion that remixes the plan of millowners, ahmedabad- complete with the curved toilet and separation of  structure and enclosure and the staircase that shoots out below the floating roof out of the facade- breaking the box. while the lower floor is pretty much a corbusier copy, on the second floor it looks like the need for a more conventional space has led to a cladding of wood within the concrete shell making a more warmer temple like space- with false ceiling and a wooden floor too. i doubt the architects did that. the topmost floor has learning  spaces for the monks, accessed by a garden path. in the lobby below, a painting hangs on the wall that follows the path of a person into the building with all the elements along the way representing the path to spiritual moksha. in the shop below they played 'buddham sharanam gacchcami'