Golden A' Design Award Winner 2020
The symbolic vocabulary of Hsu Fu Chu's Yong Quan Public Park operates on multiple registers that communicate meaning through spatial organization, material choices, and ecological imagery. The central water body functions as a powerful archetype of life-giving sustenance and purification, with water universally associated across cultures with renewal, reflection, and the subconscious depths from which creativity emerges. The organic shapes formed by floating vegetation evoke geographic metaphors, suggesting that this park represents a world within the world, a microcosm where visitors can experience nature's patterns at intimate scale. The circular viewing platform extending into the water recalls the archetypal mandala form, a symbol of cosmic wholeness and contemplative centering that positions observers at the threshold between land and water, stability and flux. The deliberate tension between the curvilinear natural forms and the surrounding orthogonal urban grid encodes a broader allegory about the relationship between organic and constructed systems, suggesting that these seemingly opposed ordering principles can achieve productive coexistence. Color symbolism reinforces these readings: the verdant greens signify vitality, growth, and ecological health, while the deep blues suggest depth, tranquility, and the infinite. The terracotta pavilion roofs introduce earth tones associated with human dwelling and cultural continuity, grounding the natural elements within human experience. The park's name, evoking springs or fountains, connects to universal water symbolism of emergence and sources, positioning this designed landscape as a wellspring of urban vitality. From a spatial semiotics perspective, the pathways function as invitation and narrative, their curves suggesting leisurely discovery rather than direct transit, encoding values of contemplation over efficiency.
Travelling though the river of time, and discovering the history of an old sugar factory. Walking on the shore trail left with traces of the previous sugar factory railway, people can feel the historical atmosphere where the scenery of the circular trail surrounding the lake fascinatingly resembles a ring on lake telling everyone the history of the sugar factory. From the tour to Taichyu Factory of Teikoku Seitou K.K., people see not only the charm of vitality, also the complete history.