Extro-Intro-Excavate
Advised by Ron Witte
Taipei, Taiwan [2024]
taipei little big studio description
mixed-use commercial, cultural, and housing
Within the city, an individual moves between outwardness and inwardness, at once alone and part of the whole. Architecture here is carved to exploit this double condition, allowing circulation to oscillate between outwardness and inwardness. An architectural and urban enfilade, circulation stitches interior to exterior, the self to the collective.
The collective is interpreted through urban precedents, such as Taipei’s outdoor markets, where individuals act as parts of a larger whole or exist independently. This oscillation becomes tangible in moments of transition, such as emerging from a crowd or viewing across expansive spaces. Architectural strategies like scale shifts, programmatic layering, and spatial carving heighten this duality, fostering interactions between city and building. Architecture here does not serve the individual over the collective, or the collective over the individual. Instead, moments of respite are carved intentionally to frame city, and to contrast points of congestion at the atrium spaces. In effect, different slivers of the city are framed throughout the experience, creating a layered urban montage that resonates with Taipei’s cultural and spatial complexity. In all, Extro-Intro-Excavate explores the duality of self and collective through spatial excavations, stitching interior to exterior, the part to the whole, the individual to the city.