Miss Hsiu has faced the hostel south. The approach is through an arch-shaped gate. Prominent on the sheer facade of the main building are relief representations of the sun god and moon goddess.
Beside the main entrance is a spiral staircase giving direct outside access to the second floor, where there is a permanent exhibition of photographs and models of schools.
Near the main building is a mushroom shaped pavilion, and there is a swimming pool in the rear.
An external color scheme of red, white and brown harmonizes with the natural greens of the area and with the profusion of flowers in the hostel gardens.
Another prominent building of Miss Hsiu's is the newly opened Teachers' Hostel in Taichung.
It is largely of Chinese architecture with special emphasis on the palace style of ancient times.
Miss Hsiu comes to the task of teacher-hostel designing most appropriately. She is Taiwan's busiest school architect. Of the 150-odd buildings to her credit, most are schools.
She didn't become an architect the easy way or without opposition. By Chinese tradition, architecture is respectable enough—but for men, not women. This was much more so 20 years ago.
In 1943, when she was graduated from senior middle school, Miss Hsiu made up her mind. She wanted to build things. But mother favored domestic science in preparation for marriage. Father, a painter, was prepared to accept further education only for the acceptable, prosaic career of teaching.
To conquer both cultural and parental opposition is not easy. With mother in tears and father agreeable only to keep her in school, Miss Hsiu carried the day. The decision meant that she must leave home.
Wartime Ambition
It was wartime. For seven days and nights she rode a bus from her home town of Yuanling in Hunan to the temporary capital of Chungking in Szechuan. Fatique and home-sickness almost ended a career before it began. Yet the war's destruction to be seen along the route spurred her determination to help reconstruct China once the Japanese had been defeated.
At that time the government encouraged students to enter architecture or civic engineering. Construction was expected to be the dominant need at the war's end. At the National Central University, boys were swamping the Department of Architecture with more applications than could be accepted. But she and another girl made the grade.
Miss Hsiu had been pointed toward architecture by the drawing lessons of her father. In primary school she excelled in drawing and arithmetic, a good combination for an aspiring designer. As the middle school years came, she began to learn to put her skills together.
Through four years of professional training, she developed her own philosophy of architecture. She decided to keep her style eclectic, utilizing some of the best to be found in each of the many approaches to building.
If her plans were to have a subsequent signature, it was the touch of old China that she liked to bring into even the most modern design. This avoids monotony and preserves art forms that are worthy of survival, she says.
First Job in 1947
Upon her graduation in 1947, she started work in the Ministry of Communications at Nanking. Theory was translated into the real thing. The next year she was sent to Shanghai for designing—but it was a bad time. As 1949 came, the Communists pushed forward their aggressions everywhere. Miss Hsiu began to despair of being able to realize her goal of postwar reconstruction.
There was much to be done on Taiwan, however, and in 1949 she received an invitation from the Taiwan Railway Administration to become an assistant architect. The only shortcoming was the railroad system's lack of money to do much building. She drew plans for the Panchiao station, a simple, functional building, and for the modernization of old buildings. That was sufficient to show her ability. In three years she had the full-fledged title of architect.
In 1953 she was married to C. K. Fu, an engineer in her office. She has a son and happily combines career and home life. But to be a good mother comes first, she believes, and to that end maintains home and office under the same roof. With her son in Tsai Hsing primary school, she has more than professional interest in school buildings that are attractive as well as functional.
Change of Masters
Miss Hsiu had left the railroad post in 1955 because there was not enough opportunity to further her professional experience. She had trained herself to plan and supervise the construction of buildings, and the railroad administration didn't have enough of such work to keep her busy.
With the help of her husband, she opened her own office.
"It was a difficult time," she recalled. "I did everything from the planning to supervision of the small details of construction. Yet that is the way to learn and I have had no regrets."
Her first building as an independent architect was that of the Armed Forces Nursery School.
It is especially designed for small children and has outstanding equipment for learning and play. An auditorium seating 1,500 is used at night for theatrical performances.
Classrooms and dormitory are painted in light and dark greens. There are three playgrounds and a swimming pool.
Seven years of hard work and increasing business have followed. Now she has her hands full and then some. She is architect for 14 projects currently under construction in every part of Taiwan. Twenty architects and engineers are employed in her office and in the field. Remembering her own early days, she takes young architects from the universities and helps them all she can. Likewise with engineers specializing in construction.
"I had many difficulties when I was graduated from the university," she said. "Actual work is somewhat different from the theories of school, valuable though they may be."
No Special Favor
Architect Hsiu, son and her engineer-husband (File photo)
Not surprisingly, Miss Hsiu has three women working and learning in her office. She has not forgotten that architects are supposed to be men.
She says she has no desire to give special favor to women architects. But she adds that they are careful workers.
Miss Hsiu's specialty is basic designing. Her designs are carried out by engineers and contractors but she always supervises construction.
In her view, buildings must have a distinctive appearance and an interior arrangement suited to the purposes of the occupants. Other important factors are the site, lighting, sanitation, heating, ventilation, security and the well-being of those who will use the structure.
For schools, this means protection of the pupil in every aspect: general health, eyesight and safety. Even the blackboard is important. It must be curved so as not to reflect light into the pupils' eyes.
Size and shape of classrooms are crucial. Rooms must be built so that students can be taught by a single teacher. This involves both visual and acoustical problems.
Among Miss Hsiu's achievements are the Provincial Kaohsiung Girls' Normal School, the Provincial Hualien Normal School and the Provincial Chiayi Girls' Middle School. Each has its distinctive identification.
For example, the Provincial Kaohsiung Girls' Normal School has a gate design incorporating three candles. They symbolize the night work of students. But if they stand for sacrifice, they also promise a bright future.
On the wall of the dormitory is a sail-shaped sculpture. It promises that the students will advance with a favorable wind.
In designing a residence, Miss Hsiu is all woman. Her heart and best design go into the kitchen, because she knows the housewife and home maker will spend several hours a day there. By Chinese practice this is revolutionary. Kitchen windows must overlook the gate, so that wife or servant can handle the house easily, even if they are alone.
Close to Nature
The art of Chinese architecture is closely associated with the intimate feelings of the people for the significance and beauty of nature. Buildings have been constructed with respect for the "spirits of earth, water and air" The idea is not to dominate nature, as in the usual Western way, but to cooperate with the environment in attaining a perfect harmony.
This is praiseworthy enough. It is also an objective sought by Frank Lloyd Wright and others of the West. Unfortunately, many Chinese buildings conform to religious and philosophical interpretation but fall down both artistically and in terms of usefulness. Chinese architecture also has tended toward uniformity and even monotony.
Architect Hsiu Tse-lan, left, helps fledgling designer (File photo)
Miss Hsiu is a believer in specialization. She notes how contractors, engineers, manufacturers and machines can be utilized in the creation of a structure. These elements must be coordinated, she says, to make a better, more useful edifice, and that is the architect's task.
Yet the architect-coordinator has many problems in the China of today. Most contractors are self-taught. They think they have learned everything from experience and do not want to listen to the architect. Often they accept only what their father taught them about building. From masons to carpenters, subcontractors have similar failings. They often resist change.
Four Vital Aspects
She hopes the government will open special classes for building construction workers, so that they will accept new ways and build better structures.
"Comfort, beauty, safety and economy—these are the most important aspects of building today," Miss Hsiu declared.
"The shape of a house is important. Uniformity and monotony will spoil the most scenic site.
"Buildings include the values of both music and painting. To those visiting a country, the architecture makes a deep impression. In the short run, this may be stronger than the impact of the people. Both culture and economic development are revealed. China has an improving record in its architectural impact."
Miss Hsiu has reason to be optimistic. Departments of Architecture exist at the Provincial Chengkung University, Tunghai University and Taipei Christian College. About a third of the students are girls.
Of 274 architects in Taiwan, 7 are women. Judging from Taiwan construction today, most are doing their best and working for better architecture and more useful and beautiful buildings.
When credit is given, Miss Hsiu will be near the head of the line.