SDG4
NCKU Architecture Graduation Exhibition Debuts in Dual Cities: Breaking Paradigms with Taiwan's First "Mobile Exhibition"
The Department of Architecture at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) presented an impressive exhibition of the 114th cohort’s five-year graduation design projects this year. The exhibition debuted at the historic Wu Yuan Public Hall in Tainan City, running from June 5 to June 8, before relocating to the Bo-Pi-Liao Historic District in Taipei City on June 11. Set against the backdrop of these heritage spaces, this year’s exhibition featured a total of 39 graduation design projects, showcasing the students’ five-year academic journey. The event attracted a large number of architectural professionals, academic faculty, students, and members of the general public, creating a vibrant and engaging atmosphere.
Six Major Themes Reflect on Contemporary Space and Explore Social Publicness
The exhibition was organized into six major themes: “Time Repair,” “Inner Landscapes,” “Boundary Breach,”“The City on the Move,”“Escape from Reality,” and “Distribution of Daily Life.” The core of the exhibition closely addressed contemporary environmental and social issues, including reflections on the precarious state of the natural environment, the regeneration and revitalization of historic buildings, the public nature and renewal of urban infrastructure, age-friendly living spaces, and sustainable architecture. The works fully demonstrated how students from the Department of Architecture at NCKU, through design thinking, pose profound questions and challenges regarding the “sociality” and “publicness” of contemporary spaces.
Taiwan’s First-Ever “Mobile Exhibition”: Bringing Design into Everyday Life
In addition to the stationary exhibition, this year’s student teams broke the mold of traditional graduation projects by organizing Taiwan’s first-ever “mobile exhibition” for graduation designs. From June 4 through June 14, the mobile exhibition toured Kaohsiung, Tainan, Taichung, and Taipei, hosting a total of 10 on-the-go displays. Using a compact, expandable and transformable truck, the students transported self-designed “stackable wooden crates” to display architectural drawings and models. This pioneering initiative successfully took the works “out of the exhibition hall” and directly into the urban environments and communities where the designs were originally conceived, facilitating firsthand interactions with local residents. This initiative successfully integrated the outcomes of architectural education into the context of public and campus life, fostering more interdisciplinary and intergenerational discussions, and further expanding the public relevance and social engagement of the students’ work.
Industry, Government, and Academia Unite in Recognition; Deputy Minister of the Interior Praises: “Breathing New Life into Old Homes”
During the exhibition, multiple public lectures and guided tours were held concurrently, covering topics ranging from design thinking and urban development to sustainability and regeneration, successfully establishing a platform for dialogue between architecture and society. Through the seamless integration of static exhibitions, mobile exhibitions, and professional lectures, the graduation projects transitioned beyond a one-way presentation of academic achievements; they served as a tangible medium for fostering social communication. Dong Jianhong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Interior, personally visited the exhibition and toured the students’ works. He highly commended the innovative thinking demonstrated by NCKU students in addressing Taiwan’s current dilemma of “aging communities and aging housing,” noting that these works not only extended the lifespan of the buildings but also provided highly valuable reference proposals for the Ministry of the Interior’s ongoing “Old Housing Lifespan Extension and Functional Renewal Program”—a concept that closely aligns with the exhibition’s philosophy of bringing spatial innovation to historic neighborhoods.
Professor Wei Ding-ling, the widow of Class of ’56 alumnus Zhuang Xian-zheng, established the Graduation Design Creativity Scholarship. She was also present to confer the award to this year’s six recipients: Wang Deng-ye, Wu Jia-wei, Lin Jia-pei, Lin Kuan-yu, Lin Da-wei, and Chen You-qi. Several distinguished alumni and renowned architects—including Chen Bo-sen (Class of ’56), Zhang Qinghua (Class of ’68), and Chen Kun-feng (Class of ’83)—were also present to deliver speeches encouraging the graduates and to participate in this profound discussion on the future vision of architecture, which belongs to the younger generation.
Six Major Themes Reflect on Contemporary Space and Explore Social Publicness
The exhibition was organized into six major themes: “Time Repair,” “Inner Landscapes,” “Boundary Breach,”“The City on the Move,”“Escape from Reality,” and “Distribution of Daily Life.” The core of the exhibition closely addressed contemporary environmental and social issues, including reflections on the precarious state of the natural environment, the regeneration and revitalization of historic buildings, the public nature and renewal of urban infrastructure, age-friendly living spaces, and sustainable architecture. The works fully demonstrated how students from the Department of Architecture at NCKU, through design thinking, pose profound questions and challenges regarding the “sociality” and “publicness” of contemporary spaces.
Taiwan’s First-Ever “Mobile Exhibition”: Bringing Design into Everyday Life
In addition to the stationary exhibition, this year’s student teams broke the mold of traditional graduation projects by organizing Taiwan’s first-ever “mobile exhibition” for graduation designs. From June 4 through June 14, the mobile exhibition toured Kaohsiung, Tainan, Taichung, and Taipei, hosting a total of 10 on-the-go displays. Using a compact, expandable and transformable truck, the students transported self-designed “stackable wooden crates” to display architectural drawings and models. This pioneering initiative successfully took the works “out of the exhibition hall” and directly into the urban environments and communities where the designs were originally conceived, facilitating firsthand interactions with local residents. This initiative successfully integrated the outcomes of architectural education into the context of public and campus life, fostering more interdisciplinary and intergenerational discussions, and further expanding the public relevance and social engagement of the students’ work.
Industry, Government, and Academia Unite in Recognition; Deputy Minister of the Interior Praises: “Breathing New Life into Old Homes”
During the exhibition, multiple public lectures and guided tours were held concurrently, covering topics ranging from design thinking and urban development to sustainability and regeneration, successfully establishing a platform for dialogue between architecture and society. Through the seamless integration of static exhibitions, mobile exhibitions, and professional lectures, the graduation projects transitioned beyond a one-way presentation of academic achievements; they served as a tangible medium for fostering social communication. Dong Jianhong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Interior, personally visited the exhibition and toured the students’ works. He highly commended the innovative thinking demonstrated by NCKU students in addressing Taiwan’s current dilemma of “aging communities and aging housing,” noting that these works not only extended the lifespan of the buildings but also provided highly valuable reference proposals for the Ministry of the Interior’s ongoing “Old Housing Lifespan Extension and Functional Renewal Program”—a concept that closely aligns with the exhibition’s philosophy of bringing spatial innovation to historic neighborhoods.
Professor Wei Ding-ling, the widow of Class of ’56 alumnus Zhuang Xian-zheng, established the Graduation Design Creativity Scholarship. She was also present to confer the award to this year’s six recipients: Wang Deng-ye, Wu Jia-wei, Lin Jia-pei, Lin Kuan-yu, Lin Da-wei, and Chen You-qi. Several distinguished alumni and renowned architects—including Chen Bo-sen (Class of ’56), Zhang Qinghua (Class of ’68), and Chen Kun-feng (Class of ’83)—were also present to deliver speeches encouraging the graduates and to participate in this profound discussion on the future vision of architecture, which belongs to the younger generation.
Dong Jianhong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Interior, also personally attended the exhibition to review the students' works one by one, highly commending the innovative thinking demonstrated by NCKU students in addressing Taiwan’s current dilemma of "aging population and aging housing stock."
In addition to the stationary exhibition, this year’s student team broke the mold of traditional graduation projects by organizing Taiwan’s first-ever “mobile exhibition” for graduation designs.
The exhibition was organized into six major themes: “Time Repair,” “Inner Landscapes,” “Boundary Breach,” “The City on the Move,” “Escape from Reality,” and “Distribution of Daily Life.”
Several distinguished alumni and renowned architects were also present to deliver speeches encouraging the students.
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