By the end of January 2000, the total number of schools included in Tzu Chi's "Project Hope," (the reconstruction of schools in the central region that were destroyed in the earthquake of September 21, 1999) had reached forty-three, and the total number of students from these schools topped forty-five thousand.

In order to help the foundation shape new hope for education in the quake-ravaged regions, more than fifteen architectural firms are devoting their full efforts to this project. As their plans take shape, a driving force that comes from a "competition for goodness" has been fermenting.

From the initiative of these architects and the creativity of their designs, we see the dawning of a better educational environment in the disaster areas. In this issue, we profile some of these architects and their designs.

Speak Out Your Dreams

"Please tell me all your wishes." Kris Yao, president of Artech Inc., encouraged school students and staff to use their imagination to outline their blueprint of hope. What he asked of himself was to be an angel who did his best to make their wishes come true.

"What can we do? I believe most people in Taiwan shared this thought after the earthquake on September 21, 1999. In the same way I thought, 'What can we as architects do?' In addition to assigning some of my staff members to the disaster areas to help construct prefabricated houses, I visited several aboriginal settlements in the mountains and asked the residents there, 'What can I do to help you?'"

Kris Yao, winner of the Outstanding Architect's Award, the Taiwanese Architect's Award, and the first Far Eastern Architecture Award in 1999, recruited a group of volunteers from his company right after the quake to help construct prefabricated houses for homeless earthquake survivors and to assess the conditions of damaged buildings in the disaster areas. This same group later became the major designing team for Tzu Chi's Project Hope.

Team member Chiang Chih-hao said, "Actually, undertaking Project Hope interrupted my own plans." He had intended to take a two-month leave for advanced studies, but as a pious Christian, he well knew that if he absented himself from the reconstruction project, he would regret it all his life. Therefore, Chiang gave up his leave and took up the firm's designing work for three junior high schools and one elementary school in Nantou County.

Reconstruction with love and care

"All these schools must be rebuilt with love and care," said Lin Pi-yu, vice president of the Tzu Chi Foundation. Her words vibrated in Yao's heart, who immediately jotted them down in his notebook. "Isn't this conviction exactly what motivates all the people working together for Project Hope?" he thought.

He recalled that more than a decade ago when he designed the Weike Elementary School, he had also done so with love and care. At that time, he spent a lot of time on the construction site communicating closely with the school and the laborers. He even went to the classrooms to ask the students to draw their ideal school. Graphics of the students' inner worlds became the outline of his design for their campus.

"Everyone was involved in the designing," said Yao. "There was a cement worker who was so proud of the high quality of the construction that he said someday he would like for his own children to study in that school." What touched Yao most was that the entire faculty and the students of that school took good care of the environment, because they all recognized that the environment of the school was the product of every member of the school, not just of the designer.

"When everybody is dedicated, the construction project will definitely be instilled with the spirit of love and care, just like Tzu Chi's Project Hope, which took shape gradually in an atmosphere of love from the very beginning," said Yao. To enable the schools to have a better understanding of the architects and their designs, Yao invited representatives from each of the four schools that his firm was designing to visit his office. He also led them to Weike Elementary School to show how space was allocated and utilized.

Attention to basic human needs

"We have built many expensive buildings, and now we have to consider how to build inexpensive, yet good-quality school buildings," remarked Chiang. "I believe there is no conflict between the two requirements." In comparison with the larger projects they have handled before, the reconstruction of the four schools is on a considerably smaller scale, since none of the schools have many students.

Yao uses "intuition" to describe his design concept--to "intuitively" grasp the relation between space and environment. For instance, Nantou is a mountainous region. How to blend the school into such a natural environment, how to preserve the trees, and how to design corridors and staircases in a fashion that is both practical and fun, can all be viewed as a result of the intuitive observations one makes after one has placed oneself in that environment.

"Intuition is rooted in human nature," Yao believes. "If we provide for basic human needs in designing a building, then a positive atmosphere will certainly be generated between the inhabitant of this space and the environment."

"Such human nature is beyond culture and religion," he continued. "A traveler will be moved by the medieval architecture of Europe or the temples in Nepal regardless of his or her understanding of architecture or the history of that country." If his designs can create that universal human touch, Yao believes, they will definitely strike a common chord in people's hearts.

Chiang also thought that the peculiar needs, difficulties and solutions of each school all have to do with basic human needs. This is very similar to Tzu Chi's emphasis on the interaction between man and space and its attitude of not holding fast to fixed forms. For example, in consideration of basic human needs, Tzu Chi places much importance on the ventilation and lighting of the buildings.

Design concepts that accommodate nature

In addition to satisfying the needs of the schools, architects should also have a vision of the ideal design. Chiang noted that their firm aims to come up with designs that meet requirements of both function and quality in every project they undertake.

"A building is not simply a lifeless structural body," Chiang said. "Rather it should serve as a bridge between a group of people and their environment."

As an example, he cited Chungliao Junior High School, which dominates an expansive piece of land. In answer to the school's ideal of becoming a camping center for Nantou County, the design team envisioned the school, situated on a plateau, as a "forest school." Seen from afar, the school will look like a castle in the forest. In contrast to the commercial betel nut plantations prevalent in the area, the environmentally-friendly school and its vegetation bear educational significance.

Chen Tsung-lien, the school principal, agrees with that idea. He has decided to plant trees indigenous to Nantou, such as the acacia tree, as a resource for future nativist education.

Without trees, the campus would naturally lack a sense of liveliness. In Project Hope, Master Cheng Yen stresses that old trees should be preserved. In other words, the construction should be designed to avoid disturbing old trees, instead of moving the trees to accommodate the construction.

When it comes to presenting the historical sense of the school, Yao believes that it is most important to be "natural." "Trees endow a campus with vitality and hope." When he designed Weike Elementary School, several banyan trees on the campus were major factors in how the space was developed. To accommodate the trees that naturally grew at an angle, he designed the four stories of classrooms as ascending like staircases. By so doing, he preserved a part of the school's history and also showed his respect for life.

Inspirer of imagination, maker of dreams

"Tell me all your wishes and list all your needs..." said Yao with confidence and humor. "We hope that people can open up their imagination. We see ourselves as angels who have come to fulfill their wishes. When their wishes are fulfilled, our ideas will also be realized."

In Yao's view, designs are not "created" by architects. "We are more like archaeologists. Take designing these schools for example. The schools are already there. All we do is follow nature and carefully unearth their original form."

Chien Szu-yuan, principal of Chichi Elementary School, explained that his school was located at the center of town, and that the famous narrow-gauge train of Chichi steamed by it. Taking into consideration that Chichi is a tourist center and the railway is one of the town's features, Artech incorporated in their design a railway tie walkway on the campus and plans to use stone slabs as the main building material.

"They have designed the school like a park. The children will enjoy studying here." Chien Szu-yuan likes the design style and also provided the design team with much information about the culture of Chichi.

Chiang thinks that in the architectural design process, the architects need not only creativity, but more importantly the ability to meet the needs of the users. Especially in Tzu Chi's Project Hope, reaching a consensus between all parties on the final design was a real challenge.

Chiang recalled that when he first became part of Tzu Chi's Project Hope, he had thought in terms of practicality and wanted to complete the reconstruction work in the shortest time possible. "I had not imagined that Master Cheng Yen would take an even more ideal viewpoint and ask us to envision campuses that could be used for centuries to come. She gave us much guidance in pointing out the larger directions."

Chiang emphasized that the Master has great foresight. "If we are going to do it, we might as well do the best we can." This bold attitude facilitated communications between the design team and Tzu Chi. Perhaps that was also why Artech was the first among the fifteen architectural firms to reach mutual understanding with Tzu Chi and the schools.

A Gift for the Students

The five schools under the care of architect Huang Chien-hsing are scattered in four different towns in Taichung and Nantou Counties. He thus has to travel back and forth from his home in Ilan County. "Of course it's hard work, but it doesn't bother me," says Huang.

It began to drizzle as Huang Chien-hsing drove through Yuchih Village in Nantou County, central Taiwan. He had driven all the way from Ilan on the northeastern coast of Taiwan and was experiencing for the first time the damp, hazy weather in the mountains of Nantou. For two days, with one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding a map, he drove with three other architects from his firm on unfamiliar winding roads that meandered among the four towns of Chungliao, Yuchih, Kuohsin and Tsaotun.

Originally, Huang was responsible for only two elementary schools in Taichung, but now the number has increased to five to include three others in Nantou. Of the fifteen architectural firms involved in Project Hope, Huang's firm probably has the smallest staff, but is responsible for designing the largest number of schools. Therefore, frequent traveling has become a must.

Getting involved

"When I first took up the responsibility, I didn't even know where these schools were or how seriously they had been damaged," said Huang. From his on-site surveys, he found that the actual conditions were much worse than he had supposed. He realized that the design work would be much more difficult and challenging than he had anticipated.

Three or four years ago, Huang received an award from Architect Magazine for his design of Lanyang Girls' High School. Shortly afterwards he was invited to Hualien to visit the Tzu Chi College of Medicine and the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing and to give advice on the design of the future Tzu Chi elementary and secondary schools. After the earthquake on September 21, the foundation got in touch with him again and asked him to participate in the reconstruction project for the schools in the disaster areas. He agreed without hesitation and promised to cooperate fully.

Huang is an idealist. For many years, he has accepted cases without thinking much about profit. Therefore, when Tzu Chi asked him to help with the reconstruction project, he said "yes" without giving it a second thought.

"For the past two or three months, my entire staff has concentrated on Tzu Chi's Project Hope." In addition to the five schools entrusted to him by Tzu Chi, Huang is also contracted to design another elementary school in Shuili, Nantou.

In his twenty years of practicing architectural design in his hometown of Ilan, Huang has never undertaken any design project for schools outside his county. In order to communicate his design concepts with the schools and Tzu Chi, he has to commute between Ilan in northeastern Taiwan, Hualien on the east coast, and the disaster areas in mountainous central Taiwan. As it is not very convenient to fly to those places from Ilan, he travels by train. So much travel is time-consuming, especially when he still has to find the places on a map.

Talking about how the schools are located in different towns, Huang spoke optimistically. "Their locations just form a circle, and it takes half an hour to go between each school. I have to spend one day to go up the mountains and another day to get down anyway, so I might as well be responsible for them all." These words alone made him responsible for rebuilding five schools.

In all fairness, due to the time limits involved in rebuilding the schools, the architects are under no small pressure. "Of course it's hard work, but it doesn't bother me," said Huang with a smile. "As a matter of fact, I even get quite a strong sense of achievement out of it!"

Multifunctional use of space

With a head of gray hair, Huang gives the impression of an easygoing gentleman. He has his own views when it comes to education. He once chaired the parents committee at a school, and not only did he give advice on the allocation and use of the school buildings and other hardware, he also shared his ideas with the school about the educational system and teaching approaches in Taiwan.

For example, he inquired into the necessity of a "counseling room" to carry out counseling work. On the usage of the music room, he questioned whether it wouldn't be more efficient use of space to design it for multiple functions so that it could also function as a meeting room, a performance hall and a gathering place for local villagers. "In short, in order to make the best use of space, we should avoid restricting the use of one space to one purpose."

Huang has devoted many years to designing school campuses in Ilan. His style is lively and full of fun, attracting people from other schools and architectural firms to look at and learn from his designs. "They are very surprised that schools can be designed in such a fashion."

Huang is expert at using the traditional Chinese U-shaped building as the main structure in his designs. "Such a structure has a focal point and creates a centripetal and unifying feeling." Take for instance Chihcheng Elementary School, which sits on a small piece of land and has a small student body. Huang designed the school building in the U-shaped style, artfully creating a sense of proximity between the school and a nearby stream and forest and adding a pastoral tone to the school grounds.

Fukuei Elementary School sprawls over a five-level terrace facing Chiuchiu Mountain. Huang wants to model the roof of the school building to resemble a mountaintop, in order to create a correlation between the school and the mountain it faces.

Huang's buoyant, unrestrained designs reflect the spirit with which he travels from one school to another in search of creative inspiration.

Enjoying the creative process

Huang sees each case he undertakes as an opportunity to create. "Tzu Chi is willing to raise so much money for Project Hope and give us the rare opportunity to exercise our creativity."

"Most architects consider designing schools to be a money-losing business, because the designing fee is not high and the construction period is long." But to Huang, the most important thing in designing schools is that he has more freedom to develop his ideas. "That is why I so enjoy it."

Take Tungkuang and Chihcheng elementary schools for example. Because they were added to Tzu Chi's list of commitments much later, time was pressing. As soon as Huang received the terrain maps and the reconstruction plans for these two schools, he worked overnight with his staff to produce the draft designs and models. Early next morning, he rushed to Hualien with bloodshot eyes to brief Tzu Chi on his designs.

"I just contacted Tzu Chi in the morning, and by that afternoon all the necessary data were faxed to my office!" Tzu Chi's efficiency surprised Huang, who was working with the foundation for the first time. "Tzu Chi had prepared everything beforehand in detail, including information about the schools, the roster of the construction team, the contact numbers of all people involved, the expectations of the schools, etc."

Huang believes that an actively involved client like Tzu Chi definitely has a positive influence on the design process. "My design team has confidence in our expertise, but we also think that the opinions expressed by Tzu Chi form a momentum that drives us to think further."

For over two decades, Huang's school designs have won recognition for their influence on the educational environment of his hometown and for his devotion. Perhaps his designs for Tzu Chi's Project Hope are a great gift to the students in the disaster areas, which will instill new hope into the education field in this country.