Lin Chow-min, a part-time lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Building Technology crowned the Far East Architecture Award. Lin was the fourth TKU alumnus to win such an award. Lu Li-huan, Hsieh Ying-chun and Wei Kuo-sheng, all TKU alumni, won such an honor last year.

Lin won the honor with his designing work on Min-Ho Elementary School, Suili Town, Nantou County.

Lin employs a users-oriented consideration and integrates the architectural element of aboriginal Bunung Tribe to build a small-type school for the 72 students with less cost of NT$55 million. Lin’s work was unable to win the award last year because the construction work had three percent not to be completed despite his work won high remarks.

Lin said that the work he designed for Min-Ho Elementary School was quiet different from that of Elite Booking Co., Ltd. He put himself into the work with an imagination on how to enjoy a school campus surrounding by mountains. He employs the waste railway sleepers as connection tool to create a wooded roof in harmonious and comfortable conditions. The wind-catching apparatus designed by the aborigines to be put on the top of roof will not only have a beautiful shape but also have a natural wind-catching function.

But Lin has encountered many difficulties during his design. The heaviest pressure came from the time. The design work has originally to be completed within 45 days. He applied for prolonging the design time but the application procedure took almost 30 days although he finally got permission to make longer to 75 days. Nevertheless, he still delayed 30 days to complete it and was fined NT$180,000 for the prolongation. Lin said that he spent about 25 days on persuading the school principal and teachers to abandon the concept of setting up commanding stand and track and field ground and to build a vegetable garden instead. It is worthwhile to see pupils joyfully playing in the vegetable garden, he said.

The Far East Architecture Award was set up in 1999 by the Far East Group and Hsu Yuan-tzu Memorial Foundation. The award was the first architecture award set up by the nongovernmental organization. It has been held for three years. The current award was the third one and the award included three categories: Taiwan Outstanding Architectural Design Award, the Sept. 21 School Campus Rebuilding Award and the International Digital Architecture Design Award.

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