Not many architecture offices will have the chance to put their hands on their own work after this is implemented. Fewer have the opportunity to reuse their own temporary architecture. Practically no one has the chance to deal with the dismantling. That is, it is very unique to give birth and death to a building as part of its design.
Since it deals with architecture as well as the curating of architecture, BIAS architects had the chance to do this in the Taoyuan Green Expo 2019, following the 2018 edition. Somehow, it has been a venture into how the things of human life emerge from nature and then return to it. Or, the way in which a building comes into place and later turns into ruins, but still preserves meaning for the people. Indeed, the building was first programmed, and the ruins were later on, too, before all could fade away.
In this context, four actions were planned on the structure left by the previous expo. The first was the de-layering of the pavilion, previously built using greenhouse construction techniques. The many components of the construction were stripped down into separate layers, like geological strata, progressively revealing the building's inner core. The second action was the redesign of the relationship between the building and the ground, introducing a system of artificial mounds to help nature take over the foundation and the building.
This way, the site's spatial experience was restructured, both extending the building's space into the surrounding landscape and transforming the building's nature. The third was the construction of an elevated pathway, a vantage point like that found in archaeological sites, where different heights provide visitors with a sense of historical layering.
All this was finally integrated into the pavilion's curatorial program within the context of the Expo, which focuses on plant species and their uses. The pavilion was exploited to address ‘herbs,’ those that first colonize the spaces of man. Actually, they do this so strongly that every single day they knock at our doors. In history, we were so fed up with this that we started eating them, didn’t we? We have been using them to spice up our meals and as dietary supplements, and they have become the basis of traditional kitchens and medicine. They also did so because they enter any place so quickly that they absorb all the many flavors, tastes, and elements left by the complexity of life on the surfaces of space. Actually, this is also the reason they help us restore polluted sites. Yes, it is, they are those who help us bring the human world back to nature. Not by chance, they have been exhibited in a pavilion going back to nature.
Within this, BIAS Architects developed a sort of ‘herb lab.’ Here, people could walk through mounds of indigenous herbs at all altitudes in Taiwan. Then, various species of herbaceous vegetation are displayed on planting shelves, introducing land restoration mechanisms. After that, there is a ‘plant tissue culture lab,’ which showcases how biotechnology regenerates endangered species and superior profit crops. Finally, it is possible to visit a large drying hall where the traditional wisdom of ‘herbology,’ accumulated over the generations, is celebrated. This way, people can experience various connections among indigenous herbs, land-restoration mechanisms, landscape, and human life. Indeed, at BIAS, we trust in indigenous herbs and know they can be the key to making our world sustainable again and finding the right balance between man and nature.
