Competition Name: ISARCH Award
Organizer: ISARCH International Organization
Competition Website: https://isarch.org/
Competition Objective:
The ISARCH Awards, established in 2001, are conferred annually by the ISARCH International Organization. The awards cover multidisciplinary design and art disciplines, with more than 10,000 entries from approximately 65 countries worldwide. The ISARCH Awards are international honors aimed at professional design firms and talented students from any design field. Our goal is to provide a platform for discussion on architecture and design solutions from global companies and universities. The competition aims to promote avant-garde trends and recognize new research emerging from the industry. A further objective is to encourage young architects and designers to participate in the discourse across all design fields, contributing their unique perspectives and insights. The philosophy behind the ISARCH Awards is to support the creativity of young and emerging talent and to foster discussions among professionals and students involved in this initiative.
Student: 張峰溢 (Master’s Program, CMAX ARCHITECTS STUDIO Architect)
Advisor: Associate Professor Chen Yan-Ting
Award: Silver Award
Project Name: Taiwan Cement DAKA Park
Project Link: https://isarch.org/2024-isarch-architecture-award-professional/
Design Concept:
Taiwan Cement DAKA Park is located at the northernmost point of Hualien County in Heping Village. “DAKA” comes from the Taroko language, meaning “observatory,” and the name symbolizes the company’s hope to look toward a bright future with peace. The park is designed as a resting point for travelers after the completion of the Suhua Highway, hoping to leave a memorable landmark that also strengthens the company’s brand image. The park’s overall landscape focuses on green energy, carbon reduction, and sustainability. To attract visitors, the park provides facilities such as restrooms, parking lots, and food services, encouraging people to stop and explore. The outdoor landscape design includes a unique exhibition of plant restoration, with the only outdoor display area for pineapple family plants in Eastern Taiwan—Bai Feng Garden—hoping to raise awareness about the importance of plant conservation for biodiversity. The design also integrates local community participation, with spaces for cultural exhibitions, community connections, and sales of local products. The architecture surrounds a sustainable water-recycling music fountain, reflecting the villagers’ vision for an eco-market on holidays. The park features Taiwan’s first solar-powered art installation, the “Peace Flower,” which moves with the angle of the sun, showcasing the company’s commitment to energy ecology.
Student Participant: 劉子謙
Advisor: Associate Professor Chen Yan-Ting
Award: Bronze Award
Project Name: Textile Machine Skyscraper
Project Link: https://isarch.org/2023-isarch-architecture-award-student/
Design Concept:
This design centers on environmental sustainability and smart buildings, transforming discarded clothing into architectural facades, creating a skyscraper that blends innovative technology with cultural imagery. The building, located in cities with high fast fashion consumption like New York, Tokyo, London, and Paris, aims to establish a full recycling and reuse system for old clothing, reducing environmental pollution and promoting resource circulation. The design explores the interaction between human consumption behavior, waste recycling, and architectural form through a phenomenological lens, presenting the philosophical ideas of “weaving time” and “regenerating space.” The skyscraper symbolizes the pinnacle of human fashion culture while addressing modern crises such as overconsumption and environmental pollution.
Student Participants: 施善譯、林芠宏、簡碩德
Advisor: Associate Professor Chen Yan-Ting
Award: Winner Award
Project Name: Circulation Canyon Modular Facade
Project Link: https://isarch.org/2023-isarch-architecture-award-student/
Design Concept:
This design features a modular facade heat dissipation system that accelerates and directs the wind in urban areas upwards and out of the city. The urban canyon effect, caused by heat islands, hampers convective cooling and affects pedestrian comfort, presenting significant environmental challenges. This system uses turbines to accelerate the airflow, cooling hot air and creating temperature differences to drive the hot air upwards, forming a three-dimensional circulation system.
Student Participant: 施善譯
Advisor: Associate Professor Chen Yan-Ting
Award: Winner Award
Project Name: METROPOLIS CLEANSE MEMBRANE
Project Link: https://isarch.org/2023-isarch-architecture-award-student/
Design Concept:
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, masks were one of the most reliable and direct ways to address urban air pollution. However, with the pandemic, masks became essential for travel, and their widespread use led to pollution issues. The materials used in masks, primarily nonwoven polypropylene, are derived from petroleum and cause air pollution during production. Additionally, discarded masks that are not incinerated often end up in the ocean, threatening marine ecosystems. This design proposes to recycle mask materials and use the principle of air pressure expansion and contraction to purify urban air.
Student Participants: 林家緯、吳孟修、劉宇華
Advisor: Associate Professor Chen Yan-Ting
Award: Winner Award
Project Name: Rebirth Seedpod
Project Link: https://isarch.org/2023-isarch-architecture-award-student/
Design Concept:
“Rebirth SeedPod” is a modular emergency shelter designed for the aftermath of the 2023 Turkey-Syria border earthquake, offering a quick and flexible solution. The design emphasizes safety and psychological health, considering that disaster victims often face PTSD. The shelter’s structure is designed to be transparent, allowing residents to feel relaxed and open, while ensuring quick evacuation during aftershocks, safeguarding lives.
Student Participants: 劉承儒、吳暐凱
Advisor: Associate Professor Chen Yan-Ting
Award: Winner Award
Project Name: City of Fungi Networks
Project Link: https://isarch.org/2024-isarch-architecture-award-student/
Design Concept:
In Australia, heatwaves, characterized by several days of extreme heat, have increased in frequency and intensity due to global warming. This design combines biomimicry and architecture to improve urban environments affected by heatwaves and to develop potential sustainable cities in the future.
Student Participants:劉承儒
Advisor: Associate Professor Chen Yan-Ting
Award: Winner Award
Project Name: EcoFusion
Project Link: https://isarch.org/2024-isarch-architecture-award-student/
Design Concept:
This design reduces primary wastewater pollution near Bondi Beach in Sydney through a natural landscape filtration system. It combines topography and the natural flow of water to create a unique public landscape design. In addition to filtering wastewater, it aims to change the public’s perception of sewage treatment plants, making them more accessible and educational, offering a green space for the community and a new landmark café for tourists.
Student Participants: 黃鈞祐、劉宇華
Advisor: Associate Professor Chen Yan-Ting
Award: Winner Award
Project Name: ANVERTIYA: THE CITY OF LIGHT
Project Link: https://isarch.org/2023-isarch-architecture-award-student/
Design Concept:
ANVERTIYA: The City of Light is a small, green, and sustainable city located in the desert. Its design follows a concentric urban plan, expanding outward from a central tower, creating a compact and efficient urban landscape. ANVERTIYA aims to resettle thousands of desert residents and provide employment opportunities for environmental restoration, helping to reclaim desertified land. The city uses innovative “Hydropanels” technology to generate green energy and collect water from the sun and air. The central tower is equipped with numerous Hydropanels, while water-collecting drones help to gather water from distant humid areas. The city also recycles wastewater, kitchen waste, and feces into nutrient-rich soil to support a seedling farm, which will eventually expand beyond the city to restore the surrounding area’s soil fertility.
Student Participants: 謝俊彥、施善譯
Advisor: Associate Professor Chen Yan-Ting
Award: Winner Award
Project Name: Gong Tong Have Fun – Kinmen Architectural Board Game
Project Link: https://isarch.org/2024-isarch-graphic-award-student/
Design Concept:
The design aims to engage the public by combining the Flying Chess board game with Kinmen’s historical architecture, using traditional architectural styles and the color scheme of Gong Tang (a local sweet) in the visual design. The pieces represent various distinctive local features, such as the iconic stone lions and Gong Tang. The game aims to integrate Kinmen’s unique culture into an innovative gift box and board game design, attracting a wide audience while preserving and promoting Kinmen’s traditional culture. The game also serves as an educational experience, introducing players to the history and landmarks of Kinmen.