A leading pioneer of landscape architecture in Taiwan, Kuo Chung-twn is known for her eco-friendly ethos in transforming public sector sites around the country.
The Laboratory for Environment & Form, a New Taipei City-based landscape design company was co-founded by Kuo and her Japanese architect husband 30 years ago. Kuo said that even though private sector work was more profitable, she prefers government projects because they have a wider impact on society.
Kuo won a National Award for Arts in 2021 for her influence on Taiwan landscape projects. With this she became the first landscape designer to receive Taiwan’s most prestigious accolade for achievement in the architecture category.
Kuo is the first landscape designer to receive a National Award for Arts in the architecture category. (Courtesy of National Culture and Arts Foundation / Photo by Liu Chen-hsiang)
The 73-year-old landscape architect specializes in environmental protection, particularly of aquatic habitats, having first made her name by transforming the Dongshan River littoral area in the northeastern county of Yilan. The Dongshan River Water Park opened in 1994, as a publicly accessible and ecologically friendly area that remains one of Yilan’s top attractions today.
Kuo’s career has embraced the concept of transforming existing landscapes rather than creating new ones, returning sites to their pre-industrialized state. One such project is Zhongdu Wetland Park in the southern city of Kaohsiung which was transformed by LEF from a landfill to a haven for nature-lovers in 2011 and is the winner of multiple awards.
Zhongdu Wetland Park shows the transformation from a landfill effected by Kuo’s company Laboratory for Environment & Form. (Courtesy of LEF)
Kuo has also restored historic buildings, mostly Japanese-era wooden structures, as part of her company’s landscaping projects. She subsequently uses a lot of wood, an eco-friendly building material, in the process of renovation.
The ambition to sustain links to the past is visible in her revival of Nanliao Fishing Port in the northern city of Hsinchu. After building a grassy plain and embankment at the site with silt removed from the port, LEF plans to renovate infrastructure and return it to life as an active fishing port.
Throughout her career the inspirational Kuo has been keen on restoring natural environments, old structures and memories, like Nanliao as a vibrant fishing port. She said that many people in the industry create new buildings, so she chose instead to focus on jobs that attract less attention such as improving existing terrain and architecture. (E) (By Oscar Chung)
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The former teahouse in Taipei Botanical Garden is a Japanese-era structure renovated by LEF. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
(This article is adapted from “Natural Architect” in the November/December issue of Taiwan Review. The Taiwan Review archives dating to 1951 are available online.)