Wang Da-Hong: An Enduring Poetic Architect (Revised and Enlarged Edition)

"Architecture is a bridge between ideals and reality.

Every home, every church, every concert hall or office building,

fulfills a need and an ideal in our lives."

—Wang Da-hong, the forgotten master and pioneer of modern Taiwanese architecture

A Biographical Work of Wang Da-hong's Works.A Classic Reissued and Revised After Twenty Years

A complete record of his life,thoughts, and representative architectural works

Discovering order and poetry in structure

Wang Da-hong was once an architect admired by architecture students. Most of his architectural works were completed between the 1950s and 1970s. After the 1980s, he gradually withdrew from the architectural scene. Coupled with his low-key and quiet personality, the name Wang Da-hong and his works gradually became forgotten treasures.

When Wang Da-hong is mentioned, the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall immediately comes to mind; it is his most widely known work. However, for many born after the 1960s, he seems like a recluse master from a wuxia novel, with little knowledge of his other works and life details. In the past, we only knew his works but not the man himself. Now, let us unveil the mystery and approach his works through the person. Perhaps, by entering from a human and humanist perspective, we can get closer to the core of architecture.

Wang Da-hong was born in 1917 and grew up in Suzhou, surrounded by traditional Chinese literati gardens, which laid the foundation for his Eastern aesthetics. As a teenager, he studied in Europe, attending Cambridge and Harvard. He was one of the few who directly received the enlightenment of Bauhaus modernism. During his graduate studies at Harvard, he was mentored by Walter Gropius, the founder of Bauhaus and then chairman of the Harvard architecture department. His classmates included I.M. Pei and Philip Johnson, and Wang Da-hong graduated at the top of his class.

In 1953, at the age of thirty-six, Wang Da-hong founded Da-hong Architects and began his experimental exploration of "modernizing Chinese architecture" on Taiwanese soil. His "modernization" was not a mere appropriation of Chinese architectural elements, but a fusion of the spirit of traditional architecture to create a new style. In his first design project, the "Jianguo South Road Residence," he created a free-flowing interior space within a simple rectangular plan. This work attempted to combine Chinese architectural vocabulary with Mies van der Rohe's stylistic language, creating a great impact on the domestic architectural community at the time and pointing the way for a younger generation seeking innovative Chinese architecture.

Subsequently, he completed many architectural projects. In addition to residential projects, his public architectural works were also brilliant, such as the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, the first student activity center at National Taiwan University, and the National Palace Museum project, which won first prize in a competition but became a legendary paper plan due to political factors.

Wang Da-hong's conception and creation were a continuous process of simplifying the complex. Therefore, his works always give an impression of simple forms, yet when one walks through them, one feels a rich layering and balanced proportions. In terms of form, scale, lines, detailed craftsmanship, and even humanistic connotations, his work consistently drew sincere admiration from younger architects. One can only imagine what kind of talent and solid professional training were required to create such works? No wonder he was regarded by Gropius as his favorite student.