Differences ．Paradise｜Kaohsiung Metro

Cianjhen Senior High School Station, located in New Caoya, is the administrative center of Cianjhen Area. In the 1960’s the demand for labor in Kaohsiung’s Export Processing Zone and Cianjhen Fishing harbor saw a major influx of foreign laborers. However, the living environment was poor, and soon became known throughout Kaohsiung for the proliferation of unlicensed illegal buildings. Though they have long since disappeared, the image of unlicensed structures has become part of memory. Buildings erected without a license form their own architectural language, based on a visual landscape of disorder, dislocation, distortion and collapse. The result is an expressive form that is irrational and irregular, an alternative dialogue between people and land, life and environment. Although this could be considered a reversal of urban aesthetics, it does express the resilience and vitality of people in adverse circumstances. This work utilizes a structure of deconstructed language and graffiti methods. The kapok flower symbolizes the idea of Kaohsiung City and the way in which buildings overlap and displace. It records the socially collective action that occurred in this place and through spatial difference and time, creates the perfect conceptual form of an unreal space, which is then used to highlight the heterogeneous nature and existentialist spirit of the area.