Taiwan’s construction industry is in mourning! Mr. Gao Erpan, the first postwar architectural giant in Taiwan who has contributed more than half a century to Taiwanese architecture, passed away peacefully at his residence on the afternoon of the 14th at the age of 95. Gao Erpan has been engaged in design and teaching for many years and is highly respected in academic and industrial circles, and is now the oldest architect in Taiwan. From the 1960s to the 1990s, the North American Pavilion, Huashi Building and Tamsui Golf Club Hall, this rich aesthetic symbolized the development of modern architecture in Taiwan since World War II and entered a new era.Pan Zhishou is an important witness to the practice of modern architecture in Taiwan.
In 2020, Professor Xu Mingsong, who curated the exhibition “Great Vision: Pearl and Jade Exhibition of Gao Erpan Architectural Works” at the National Taiwan Museum for Gao Erpan Architects, said today that he went to Gao Erpan’s mourning hall Architects in Taipei No. 1 Funeral Home in the afternoon. Gao Erpan’s family members said that Gao Erpan felt sick to his stomach yesterday afternoon, went to the toilet and went back to bed to rest, and passed away peacefully in his sleep. Xu Mingsong said that although architect Gaoerpan is old, he has always been in a good mood. He and his friends visited architect Gaoerpan last week. The Ministry of Culture and the construction industry were shocked and saddened by the sudden death of architect Gao Erpan.
Gao Erpan was born into a prominent family in Dadaocheng, Taipei in 1928. He lived in the pre-war and post-war transition era and the transition from old to new design trends. Professor Xu Mingsong said that looking back on architect Gao Erpan’s early work, we will find that he courageously challenged social conventions and insisted on the expression of modernism in difficult situations.
After the end of World War II in 1945, architects in Taiwan mainly trained at “Taiwan Provincial Institute of Technology” (the predecessor of Chenggong University). After graduating from Taiwan Provincial Institute of Technology in 1951, Gao Erpan read many books on campus while staying at the school as a teaching assistant. , and largely absorbed the avant-garde architectural trends that united the East and the West at that time, and established a more diverse perspective for conceiving and designing buildings. Gao Erpan passed the Civil Service Construction Personnel Advanced Examination and Industrial Technician Examination. Since 1965 he has taught at Tamkang University and at the Department of Architecture of the Chinese Culture University. In 1966, he founded Gao Erpan Architects, who served as president of the Association of Architects of Taipei and the National Association of Architects of the Republic of China.
Gao Erpan once said in an interview before his death that he was deeply moved after visiting Wang Dahong’s residence on Jianguo South Road when he was young. Its simple and oriental aesthetic design made him sleepless for three days with excitement; He was also deeply inspired by his speech to the school’s Architecture Department. He said, “Before Mr. Pei came to Taiwan, I paid attention to the form of modernist architecture. After that, I finally understood that architecture must pay attention to the future changes in society. Irrelevant.”
In the process of modernization of Taiwan, architect Gao Erpan received native Taiwanese architectural higher education, and also widely absorbed the avant-garde architectural ideas of Japan and Europe. He has been engaged in design and teaching for many years. Countless architects today.
Gao Erpan believes that design thinking should start from the pulse of society, so as to provide the most appropriate design for contemporary society. Architect Gao Erpan’s classic representative works, including residences, schools, hospitals, parliament buildings, factories, stations, art galleries, banks and commercial buildings, are all evidence of modern architecture practice in Taiwan since the 1960s and most faithful documents reflects the progress and achievements of contemporary Taiwanese society, economy and culture.
Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Hu Shi Cemetery, Taipei City Bank Building, Huashi Building, New Tamsui Golf Club, Yueli Mountain Villa are all representative works of Gao Erpan and are important witnesses of Taiwan’s modern architectural practice. The old Taipei City Council building located at the intersection of Zhongshan South Road and Zhongxiao West Road was also the work of Gao Erpan in 1964. To promote the BOT, the Taipei City Government demolished it in 2016 on the grounds that which “has no conservation value”. At that time, he caused the local people in the field of literature, history, culture and architecture to question, and even directly criticized Ke P’s team as “cultural killers.”
Gao Erpan won the Taipei City Government Good Design Award in 1980 and 1984, won the 15th Architect Magazine International Cooperation Good Design Award for Dongshan River Water Park in 1993, and was awarded the 2nd ROC by the Ministry of Interior in the 1996 Outstanding Architect Award, and in 1999 he was selected as the first member of the Architectural Society of the Republic of China. According to the Ministry of Culture, the National Taiwan Museum has been promoting the “Digitization Project for Collecting Classical Architectural Design Illustrations in Post-World War II Taiwan” since 2007. The Taiwan Museum will continue to carry out important research, exhibition and promotion activities in the future.
The Taipei Fine Arts Museum also posted a message on its official Facebook today to mourn architect Gao Erpan. The North American Pavilion emphasized that as one of Gao Architects’ classic masterpieces, the museum was completed and opened in 1983. The building is in the international modernist style with a low limit of gray and white. The overlapping arches form the main structure , in addition to giving shape to the chain, is also a preparation for the future expansion of the building. Architect Gao once said, “The architect completes 70%, and 30% is left to the artist.” Therefore, the North American Museum has become an expandable and sustainable art museum.
