Kris Yao began to broaden his knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism upon entering the fourth decade of his life. Since then, the religion has had a profound impact on both his life and his concept of architectural design. "I've slowly come to realize the possibility of merging artistic creativity with spiritual practice. Actually, it is almost imperative that these two elements be combined."

This article will trace Yao's formative years and hopefully shed some light on how he developed his vision as an architect. We hope our readers can glean some insights from what he has shared with us.

Grounding in architecture

Yao was born into a middle-class family in Taipei in 1951. As a child, he suffered severely from asthma and so was often absent from school. "I read a lot of comic books and storybooks at that time and learned quite a lot from them," Yao explains. Owing to his illness, his teachers did not place many demands on him at school. "I enjoyed a state of freedom which, when I think back on it now, was a blessing in disguise. Without a strict education to confine me, I was allowed to think and act with fewer inhibitions."

According to his father, Wang-lin, Yao's keen intelligence shone through even when he was a child. In elementary school, and beyond, he maintained a continuously brilliant academic record. After graduating from high school, young Yao faced the inevitable dilemma of choosing his major at university. At that time his older brother, Eric, two years his senior, was a student in the architecture department at Tunghai University in Taichung, central Taiwan. "He brought home some very interesting projects," Yao reminisced. "He would share with us what he learned at school and show us the architectural designs he was creating. He made me realize that architecture is a lot of fun." During those days in high school, Yao himself liked to wander around art galleries to see paintings or exhibitions of avant-garde art. Recognizing that architecture was an area he too would be interested in, he decided to follow in the footsteps of his brother and succeeded in getting into the Architecture Department of Tunghai University.

At that time, the head of the Architecture Department at Tunghai University was Han Pao-teh (漢寶德). He had made a number of refreshing changes in the teaching of architecture and instilled a new spirit within the department. He placed a lot of emphasis on architectural design and its logic and methodology. "Why did you create this design? What's your reason for it? Han pushed us to think. Many people think that the idea of an architectural design comes to the inventor in a sudden flash, like a light bulb going on, but that's not how it is. There's a system, a logic, behind it all." Yao said that for people, such as himself, who liked to design as well as think, the learning environment at Tunghai University was stimulating. "We reveled in the atmosphere." Even today, Yao shows great respect and admiration for Han, who, he said, is a real Renaissance man, talented in many areas.

After graduating from university, Yao worked in the interior design company established by his brother, Eric. He worked there for six years, except 1977 and 1978, when he went to the University of California at Berkeley to pursue further studies. He said it was the people, including the many friends he met there from all over the world, and the unique environment of the campus, rather than any specific person or professor, that enriched his experiences and greatly broadened his horizons.

At a later date, he left his brother's company and entered the architectural firm headed by C. Y. Lee (李祖原), an important architect in Taiwan. "Lee was my first mentor in architectural practice," said Yao. Lee's working attitude--always striving for the best, never settling for second place--had a great impact on Yao. "Under his guidance, we developed work habits whereby whenever a better idea came up during a design process, we'd crumple up the original design, even if we had almost finished it, without so much as a frown." Another aspect that impressed Yao was Lee's ability to give exciting forms to buildings. At that time, many of the buildings in Taiwan were monotonous, dull blocks. Lee's ability to structure a building in terms of style and form stood out.

Yao worked with Lee for three years. During that period of time, his ability as an architect was greatly enhanced. In 1985, ready to test his mettle, he started his own practice, Artech Inc. Architects and Designers. In the following years, he planned and supervised the design and execution of numerous building projects. His design abilities and admirable performance as an architect won him such prizes as the Outstanding Architect's Award, the Taiwanese Architect's Award, and the Far Eastern Architecture Award. Under his direction, the company has continued to thrive and enjoys a well-earned reputation as one of the most dynamic firms in Taiwan. Yao is now in a position that is the envy of many.

Views on architectural practice

As an architect, Yao is often asked to explain his idea of design. He explains that since architecture is neither pure art nor pure technology, it involves a lot of different factors and spans many disciplines. When creating a design, an architect must pay attention not only to the poetic, aesthetic aspect of a building but also to its functional arrangement. How to come up with a design that can reach a perfect balance between all of these different demands is a major challenge which every architect faces.

Of all the fine arts, architecture is the one most intimately associated with the lives of human beings. Attention to human needs is therefore a priority in architectural design. "If we provide for basic human needs in designing a building, then a positive atmosphere will certainly arise between the inhabitant of this space and the environment," said Yao. A good architect would never want to sacrifice human scale or functional requirements for the sake of a design statement. Many people think that an architect's job ends when he finishes his actual architectural design. But in Yao's opinion, an architect's job is not finished until the building that he designed is completed; in other words, an architect should supervise the construction to ensure that the quality of the building is up to standard. "It's like the difference between writing a recipe and actually cooking a meal. To be able to write a recipe does not mean that one can conjure up a good meal. In my view, if the discrepancy between a blueprint and an actual completed building is large, then the architect still has a long way to go toward improving his professional skills. If not, then the architect is competent."

Yao says that he fully enjoys his job as an architect. The process of creation is stimulating and full of fun. Every building comes into being as a result of a synthesis of external and internal factors, such as the condition of the construction site, the design concepts, the cost constraints and the personal needs of the owner. Like a good cook, an architect has to make the best use of his ingredients to come up with a good product. Yao derives a lot of pleasure from this challenging process.

The influence of Tibetan Buddhism

Yao says that before, when he created a design, he used to spend a lot of energy trying to come up with something different, something that could show off his creativity and designing skills. But later he learned that the more he wanted to create an unparalleled, one-and-only design, the more it became an impediment to his creation. He realized that more ideas and possibilities would open up to him only if he let go of all such attachments.

Such realizations came to him after he came in touch with Tibetan Buddhism.

In 1993, a friend gave him The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. The book teaches people to face death constructively and provides insights into such issues as spiritual practice, karma, and reincarnation, ultimately leading people to a fuller, more spiritually rewardingly life. Yao was so inspired by the book that he read it five times in a year. At the end of 1993, he went on a retreat conducted by Sogyal Rinpoche. Since then, the religion has remained an unfailing source of inspiration to him, and spiritual cultivation has become an essential part of his life.

When asked how his spiritual cultivation has influenced his creative work as an architect, he refers to a story that appears in the poem "Chinese Art and Greek Art" by the 13th-century Afghan Sufi poet, Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi (adapted from the translation by Coleman Barks and John Moyne):

Once, to pick the best artists, an emperor held a contest between the Chinese and the Greeks. He prepared two rooms, divided them with a curtain, and assigned one to the Chinese and the other to the Greeks. Artists from the two countries were asked to decorate the rooms in the most creative way they could to show off their talent. The Chinese asked for hundreds of colors to create their art. The Greeks did not ask for any; they just tirelessly polished their walls day after day.

When the work was done, the emperor walked first into the room decorated by the Chinese. With their superb techniques and skills, the Chinese artists had created an elaborate, ornate room. The dazzling colors and wonderful designs deeply impressed the king. But then the Greeks raised the curtain and revealed a room that was so well polished that it reflected everything in the other room. The reflection, with the sunlight playing and dancing on it, looked even more beautiful than the original image.

The Greeks, for Rumi, were the real artists; the purity of their hearts enabled them to receive innumerable images. Polishing the wall symbolizes removing ignorance and confusion from the mirror of one's mind. Once the mind is cleansed and void, it becomes a pure mirror that reflects reality, a perfect order.

For Yao, the story epitomizes the relationship between artistic creation and spiritual practice. By cultivating oneself, by purifying one's mind and letting go of all greed, attachments and delusion, one's true innate nature, in all its spaciousness and fullness, will shine forth, and therein lies the unfailing source of all creation. As Rumi further said:
　

Know that the magnificent variety
of the clouds and the weather comes from
the total simplicity of the sun and the moon.

The Greek art is the Sufi way.
They don't study books of philosophical thought.

They make their loving clearer and clearer.
No wantings, no anger. In that purity
they receive and reflect the images of every moment,
from here, from the stars, from the void.

In Yao's view, designing is actually a process of discovery. He often likes to quote the musician Keith Jarrett to illustrate his point: "Perfect music is not created by musicians. Perfect music already exists. Musicians just discover it." Likewise, perfect designs already exist; architects don't create them, they just discover them. Whether or not an architect can "discover" a perfect design depends on whether he can polish his inner mirror and dissolve the emotional and intellectual veil that clouds his pure nature.

Realizing the importance of spiritual practice to his life and work, Yao regularly goes on retreats and meditates to cultivate himself. Religion has helped him lead a spiritually fuller life and enabled him to see things with a clearer perspective. With steps firm and steady, he is sure to continue bringing out more admirable architectural designs to beautify our modern landscape.