When Climate Becomes Form

lens, scope, urban
WORK SAMPLE PDF

// About
// Works
+ Urban Design
Thresholds of Mobility
Foaming by Earth-Wet Island Effect
Downtown Data Commons
Changing Ratios

+ Architecture Design
NTSEC Renovation
Foaming by Earth-Wet Island Effect
Between Alarm and Ease
Dajia Impressionism

+ Research
The Disaggregated City
Telling Place!
Peripheral Centralities
When Climate Becomes Form

+ Inspirations Summer Workshop in Rome
Roaming in Cities
// Contact Email
LinkedIn
Instagram
YouPic

When Climate Becomes FormResearch on Climates, Territory, and Topography in Taiwan

Climate change is an irreparable phenomenon, which lets us rethink the relation between natural resources and the building environment.
In 2020, at Core Studio, co-researchers and I had a series of research projects about how climate forms a form of building environment, territory, and microclimate.

Course: Spring 2020 Architecture Design Studio (THU)
Instructor: Chia-Shun Liao, Zi-Zhen Liu
Collaborators: Wan-Yu Chen, Yi-Ting Chen, Yi-Wen Chen, Shun-Hsin Chuang,
Kuan-Ting Kuo, Iek-Tong Lao, Chi Xe
Location: Taiwan
Project: Climate and Architectural Forms Research + Exhibition

Studio Structure

/Stage 1/
Sample Case study & Mapping

Every student chose at least three samples to organize data on weather and terrain, survey the types of buildings in these areas, and comprehend the effects of the climate and topography.
The purpose of this case study is to examine how different architectural patterns have developed under specific climatic conditions and cultural evolution.
By analyzing these environmental and human factors together, students gain deeper insight into the relationship between climate, topography, and built form.

Working in a teamwork approach, we conducted a research study to re-examine a spatial situation model of cohousing on a full scale, using Taiwan as a domain model, from longitude, elevation, enthalpy of geo-geological patterns, and intensity of industrial activities.
LINK for booklet version

/Stage 2/
Microclimate Classification &
Five Sections

Based on plant distribution, industry activities, urban locations, and natural disasters, we use five sections of Taiwan to explain the natural environment through a climate classification. Unlike the other climate classifications, we invented one just for Taiwan, and it was generally based on the Tropic of Cancer, positions, altitudes, and landforms.

/Stage 3/
Four Topics

We decided to take four topics to develop the subsequent designs reflecting the climate change and tend to cool down the buildings.

WATER
More Water and More Water!

Taiwan’s oceanic climate brings both life and challenges. Uneven rainfall and rising seas threaten coastal areas. Rather than resisting water with barriers, our design explores how to coexist—reshaping the relationship between water, architecture, and landscape to create resilient environments in harmony with natural forces.

TERRAIN
The Hills and The Valley

Taiwan’s mountainous terrain shapes diverse microclimates and human activity. Flatlands support settlements, while hillside development brings risks like landslides. As human expansion continues, we must ask: how can we meet human needs while maintaining a sustainable balance with nature?

PLANTS
The Green Circle

Taiwan’s varied terrain and climate foster diverse vegetation and agricultural cultures. As industrialization replaces local plant-based resources, we ask: how can architecture reconnect with local ecosystems and propose new ways to produce and utilize vegetation sustainably?

INTERIORITY
More Cold Less Pollution!

Taiwan’s dense west coast cities create artificial terrains through stacked, isolated buildings. As people demand precise interior control, reliance on technology grows. Can we design architecture that meets human needs while reducing—or even reversing—its environmental impact?

/Stage 4/
Individual Design Development

How to rethink the issue of extreme climate: if human activities continue on the slopes, the use and proximity of the slopes are inevitable, but in what way and with what role do buildings enter the slopes? Is it invasion or occupation? Or is it coexistence and integration?

FREENESS:
The vertical uplift of the slope mediates between the ground and the atmosphere. Its sense of isolation and defined boundaries shape microclimatic effects such as solar angle, wind uplift, and windward rainfall.

NATURALNESS:
For human movement, slopes impose limits on horizontal expansion, yet their unevenness allows the body to experience variation in height and depth—offering an embodied sense of natural freedom.

SLOPE SPACE STUDY
Using a hillside campus as the subject of exploration, this project investigates the spatial reorganization of campus environments through the dual concepts of naturalness and freeness.

A standard classroom unit (5 × 7 × 3 meters) serves as the basic module, and the required number of classrooms is embedded into the slope.
The naturalness varies with the terrain’s gradient, influencing how the slope is perceived and engaged with. Simultaneously, the freeness—defined by the degree to which volumes are embedded into the slope—suggests various possibilities for spatial adaptation and user interaction.
Through this dual analysis, the project seeks to uncover diverse modes of campus activity and spatial organization in relation to topography.

Among all the necessary spaces, the classrooms can make use of the ‘vertical freedom’ provided by the sloping land .

According to the location and height change of the volume, different degrees of naturalness and freeness will correspond, and the function of the classroom space will be adjusted, combined, and deleted according to the demand of its naturalness and freedom.

/Stage 5/ Exhibition

Teamwork research booklets and individual design processes were displayed in the final exhibition.