ARCH 495/496
Senior Thesis in Architecture




2017 - 2018

Taiwan has one of the densest population of buildings identified as “at-risk” by the government. Starting by compiling a list of most at-risk buildings in Taipei city, I observed a lack of intervention in downtime recovery from natural disasters due to economic and materialistic restrains. Braced investigates the issue of structural instability through a design intervention that re-imagines the structure and space of buildings by bracing rather than demolishing. By introducing steel into the equation, the project challenges the false dichotomy of unstable structures versus demolition. The secondary steel structures enable the gradual renewal of the existing building. Furthermore, the redundancy of the diagonal scaffolding brace transforms the resident’s relationship with the housing unit.