Weave two linear elements with bamboo into a cantilevered structure on the hillside, creating a blurred boundary and space that suggest the intersection of the artificial and the natural.
Concept Explanation
The base is located at Shuisheliao Station, where the railway cuts through the mountains and forests, resembling a boundary of coexistence between humans and nature.
By observing the site, the railway and the native bamboo forest coexist within this landscape, representing artificial and natural linear elements respectively; through the "hexagonal weaving method" commonly found in bamboo craftsmanship, a constructive order is discovered, and these two linear elements are woven with bamboo into a cantilevered structure on the hillside, creating a blurred boundary and space that suggest both the artificial and the natural.
Through the guidance of the structure, people can re-observe and get close to the bamboo forest scenery on the hillside.
Development process
To reduce masonry infrastructure for the base on the slope, an experiment was conducted to anchor the cantilevered bamboo structure by interlocking bamboo groves and utilizing the frictional force between driven ground anchors and the bamboo root system.
Moso bamboo poles, approximately 750 cm in length and 6 cm in inner diameter, are connected using sleeves. The structural units are reinforced with a tapered bundling method of 5-3-1 poles to increase the stiffness of each unit. Using custom iron connectors, they are fixed to hillside ground anchors and secured to the native bamboo forest through multiple bundles, creating a large-scale (13-meter) cantilevered canopy. Through spatial weaving, the bamboo forms a three-dimensional truss covered with light-transmitting agricultural film. It resembles the mist commonly found on the site, floating above the platform and creating a contrast of dim light and shadow against the undulating bamboo-covered hillside.
Manufacturing Process
Size & Material
2.9m X 9.5m
Ma bamboo,
Aluminum tubes, steel cables, joint screw iron parts, oyster ropes,
Waterproof tarp + agricultural film mesh
Design: T-Architecture + Atelier Let's Architecture Design
Structure: Prototype Structural Engineering, Chen Kuan-Fan, Chen Chia-Hung
Lighting: Wadou Production Co., Ltd.
Construction: Jishi Wooden Structure Co., Ltd., Shen Mao Greenhouse
| Sponsored by:Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan
| Organizer: Taiwan Bamboo Association (incorporated association)
| Co-organizers:Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Management Office
| Curated by:Prototype Structural Engineering Consultants, Ltd.
Photo credit: Yuan-Jian Photography / Chu Yi-Wen
