Wang Da-hong

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Wang Da-hong
王大閎
Dahong Wang at Paris 1937.jpg
Wang Da-hong in 1937
Born(1917-07-06)6 July 1917
Died28 May 2018(2018-05-28) (aged 100)
Education University of Cambridge
Harvard University
OccupationArchitect
Buildings Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Wang Da-hong (Chinese :王大閎; 6 July 1917 – 28 May 2018) was a Chinese-born Taiwanese architect. Regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture in Taiwan, his architectural philosophy, whilst very modern in its application, was informed by both the traditional Chinese garden and the Siheyuan – a historical type of family residence which comprises several dwellings around a courtyard. [1]

Contents

Biography

Wang was born in Beijing, but grew up in Shanghai and Suzhou. His father was Wang Ch'ung-hui, a prominent Chinese jurist, diplomat and politician. [2] During the early 1930s, he went to school in Switzerland. In 1936, he started studying engineering at Cambridge University, before switching to architecture. In 1940, he enrolled at Harvard University, where he was taught by Walter Gropius. There, Wang was briefly a classmate of Huang Zuo-shen (aka Henry Huang), who would later become known as the founding director of The School of Architecture at Tongji University. [3] Wang was also a classmate of both IM Pei and Philip Johnson. [4]

Returning to Shanghai in 1947, he met up again with Huang Zuo-shen, and they both started working as part of the Five United, a disparate group of Chinese architects who had mostly studied at British universities. [5]

The Society for Research and Preservation of Wang Da-hong’s Architecture was founded in December 2013. Shyu Ming-song, secretary general of the society, says that Wang's single-story house (c.1953) on Jianguo South Road in Taipei “...was perhaps the first Western-style work with Chinese features to garner high acclaim in Taiwan”. [6]

Wang was also a fiction writer, with two novels published. In February 2014, he was awarded Taiwan's National Cultural Award. [6]

His notable works include the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Taipei. In the early 1960s, Wang won the competition to design the National Palace Museum, however his modernist design was ultimately rejected in favour of a more traditional approach by Huang Baoyu. [6] [2]

Wang died on 28 May 2018 at the age of 100. [7]

Selected works

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall by architect Wang Da-hong Taipei Taiwan Sun-Yat-sen-Memorial-Hall-02.jpg
Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall by architect Wang Da-hong

Publications

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References

  1. Ko, Sheng Chieh; Kimura, Satoru; Taji, Takahiro (April 2015). "Taiwanese architect Da-hong Wang's idea of "Chinese"". J. Archit. Plann. AIJ. 80 (710).
  2. 1 2 Han Cheung (12 May 2019). "Taiwan in Time: The dilemma of the 'poetic architect'". Taipei Times. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  3. "Henry Huang | Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion". Chineseamerican.nyhistory.org. 2013-01-24. Retrieved 2017-05-26.
  4. Edward Denison; Guang Yu Ren (29 May 2014). Luke Him Sau, Architect: China's Missing Modern. Wiley. pp. 324–. ISBN   978-1-118-44900-4.
  5. Anne Witchard (1 March 2015). British Modernism and Chinoiserie. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 264–. ISBN   978-0-7486-9097-8.
  6. 1 2 3 "A Doyen Rediscovered". Taiwan Today. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Taiwan). 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2017-05-26.
  7. Cheng, Sabine; Yen, William (29 May 2018). "National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall architect dies aged 100". Central News Agency. Retrieved 30 May 2018.