The strength of Hsuyuan Kuo and Effie Huang's creativity needs to be understood in context. Architecture is never a pure creation or realization of concepts that can be totally controlled by the architect. It is more about the accidental interventions. Choices made by clients always present major challenges in projects. The completion of any project is only possible through having dialogues with the client and collaboration with project team members. In the end, architecture is the result of a joint effort of client, design team and the occupants. It is an event full of contingencies and space continually changes over time.

Kuo and Huang confront with the contingencies of architecture directly, willingly taking up the challenge of doing real estate projects that most architects resist. They took this as an opportunity, a journey to explore personal concepts and accidental interventions. With more than 300 proposals in 25 years, they tried alchemy out of the mediocrity produced by the large capital flows in the market. They questioned themselves on what to design and how to be socially responsible. During this perplexing and uncertain process, Qing-Tian Residence, Mu-Cha Residence, The Great Shine, The Folio Hotel, the Keelung Taiping Elementary School, and the TNUA Center for Art and Technology were developed, representing the different phases of their work.

Seeds

Architecture cannot be deprived of its unique position in human life, no matter how tough the market conditions.

Architecture remains one of the few art forms in which, through long periods living in it, people experience its implied meanings. The meaning of existence and self-awareness can only be revealed through inhabiting and through a holistic perception and experience of space.

The 'Seeds' exhibition area reveals the self-nurturing sides of Kuo and Huang. Despite working in unity for a long time, they retain their individualism through ongoing debates as they collaborate. It is evident that the sensation and empathy found in their work are developed from their personal growths and experiences in their private lives. At the same time, broad reading, clarification of concepts, and constant self-examination have infused their work with wisdom and elegance. They shape architecture and shape themselves through architecture.

A Sense of Place

Finding or thinking about the "sense of place" that has not yet taken shape is one of the origins of Kuo and Huang’s design. Construction at any location should always begin from an understanding of the site, directed toward the ideal and the aspiration of settling and living there. The source of initial imagery and creative inspiration should all come from here. This sense of locale is like returning to the original state of a particular site, to discover what message it is sending out through the unique power of its own 'magnetic field.' This 'sense of place' is in the beginning both vague and personal, arising perhaps from experience, memory, and feelings. It is free, complex, and difficult to articulate. This 'sense of place' refers both to the initial feelings someone has upon first encountering a site, as well as to the 'sense of belonging' that people have when looking for a place to live long-term.

The ultimate meaning of architecture should be to create places that move us, and homes where people can find a sense of belonging.

Interior and Exterior

When one breaks away from formal constraints and thinks in terms of perception, it is easy to understand that interior and exterior are relative to each other; they are two aspects of a whole. Architecture serves to cultivate our ability to imagine and empathize. The separation from conflicting interior and exterior reflects a rigid relationship between the self and the world. As a result, our physical perceptions are suppressed, and imaginations become passive.

Kuo and Huang explore people's subjective perceptions both from inside out and outside in. They attempt to awake the intrinsic kindness of human beings and allow life to become a medium for various encounters to take place in. Depending on the distant or intimate associations among people, these interior-to-exterior and exterior-to-interior relationships produce spatial hierarchies and sequences, and shape different levels of public and private domains. Since these territories are hierarchical, spaces cannot be defined as purely interior or exterior, nor strictly public or private. When subtle ambiguity is present between interior and exterior, the uncertainty created enables the separation and polarization between subject and object to disappear temporarily, encouraging more emotional exchanges among people.

Pathways

People are always moving in space, and by imparting intention and imagination to this motion, we create 'pathways.' Pathways are related to the experience of bodies in space and our sense of belonging within architecture. Pathways factor into the life or death of architecture itself! Le Corbusier once said, “Architectural works can be divided into dead and living ones depending on whether the law of 'roaming through' has not been observed or it has been obeyed.”

Kuo and Huang's understanding of pathways in architecture comes primarily from their experiences with gardens and travels. The planning of a path may be completely free and graphic, but the experience in space is a physical phenomenon. People's movements take place in time. With time, there will be sequences which then create essence for architecture. The four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter – as well as day and night, morning and evening, all have their unique lights, shadows and breezes. In every moment, time and sequence evoke our perceptions and experiences of space.

The Envelope

Architecture had its beginnings in protecting human beings and constructing an 'outer envelope' for a building is the beginning of architecture. It is this envelope that transforms natural spaces into artificial ones. The highly active layer is an edge that creates a “dialogue” for interior and exterior to interpenetrate and generate different relationships. An ingeniously designed outer skin will block out the unwanted while allowing the essential to flow in. It will also transmit information. The outer skin and the space it encloses share life and share fortunes, just like the relationship between the membrane of a cell and its inner cytoplasm.

In its simplest form, the envelope is a functional window that can be an adjustable grille, or an expanded mesh that filters light. The envelope can also contain space such as balconies for gathering, corridors or arcades. An autonomous envelope creates an intriguing new kind of beauty.