In August 2009 severe mudslides, the result of violent torrential rain brought by the typhoon, occurred throughout the mountainous and riparian areas of Taiwan populated by members of the island’s various indigenous minority tribes. Hsieh Ying Chun and his team were asked by World Vision Taiwan and the Taiwan Red Cross Society to build temporary housing, and also to implement plans for permanent housing. Before the end of 2010, the team had completed reconstruction projects of 700 homes for thirteen different tribal communities.      

Following the disaster, many people were without work, tribal society and culture suffered from the relocation of members to new permanent housing elsewhere. In the face of these more deep rooted issues of tribal identity and cohesion, Hsieh’s team deployed cooperative building methods in their post-disaster reconstruction as a pragmatic solution for both issues. Hsieh’s design based on light-weight C-beam steel frames activates the principle of intersubjectivity – the idea that the designer merely provides a basic platform that enables the builder and the user to share in the larger part of the project, be it their own architectural imagination, a particular traditional or cultural consideration, the environment, or faith…all these elements are released to manifest in the final product.

Due to time constraints and the massive volume of reconstruction work schedules, participation from disaster-area residents was required at all stages of Hsieh’s work, from materials processing to on-site assembly to construction, and became a concrete example of Hsieh’s focus on simplification of techniques and tools, and his emphasis on the importance of establishing self-sufficient local construction systems. In this manner, high-quality homes were built within a budget equivalent to 60% of prevailing market prices, and one-third average construction time.