UTSDGs

【USR Hub】The “Tianmu Studies” Based on Culture, Life, and Environment: Imagining Low-Carbon Resilient Communities and Local Livable Systems - Local Knowledge Exploration (6): Lanya Creek Walk and Mapping as a Design Method Workshop

We are honored to invite Project Manager Wu De-You from Caoshan Design Studio and Assistant Professor Chen Ying-Chen from the Department of Architecture at National Taipei University of Technology. The session began at 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM with a presentation by Wu De-You, followed by a discussion from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM by Professor Chen Ying-Chen. Both speakers discussed that mapping is an information combination that explains the existing information of a site and its future development potential. It is not simply about creating a map through objective measurement, using abstract mathematical methods to record the surrounding environment through images. Rather, it comes from a design perspective, providing a subjective understanding of the site based on objective facts. The speakers identified three basic procedures for map-making: First, create a field: set rules and establish a system. Second, extract: isolating or "de-territorializing" components and data. Third, map: bring out (draw) relationships, set relationships, or "re-territorialize" the components. In each phase, different choices and judgments must be made, and with the interpretation and construction of the map, various processes of accumulation, disassembly, and reorganization alternately take place. Additionally, the speakers mentioned that, apart from geometric and spatial mapping, procedures such as taxonomy and genealogies, indexing, and naming are very useful in revealing potential structures. These techniques might generate insights, both practical and metaphorical. In any case, mapping is an active and creative interpretation of the map, used to show, construct, and produce a range of possible combinations. Mapping is not just an indiscriminate current situation survey and enumeration (which would be drawing or creating tables), but a strategic and imaginative way to bring out various relational structures. Mapping traces, depicts, sets relationships, discovers, and is discovered. In this sense, mapping produces the "re-territorialization" of the site. Through theoretical explanations and case studies, Professor Ying-Chen led the workshop discussion and sharing to help students understand the application of mapping.

Implemented by Center for Teaching and Learning Development
Date: 2024/05/20