EXPEDITIONS
2023 AUGUST 13-26
Tainan / Kaohsiung
Taiwan
Reimagining the City from the Shoreline Inward
For centuries, Taiwan’s urban story has been shaped not solely by land, but by the sea. In this year’s AAVS Taiwan, we turn our gaze to the ocean—not as a backdrop, but as an active force that carved harbours, dictated trade, and nourished the growth of cities. Urbanity here did not begin with buildings; it began with tides.
Taiwan’s ports emerged from the quiet contours of the seabed, creating pathways for sugar, tea, camphor, and later, technology. From shallow salt flats to deep-sea fisheries, from colonial exports to global supply chains, the island’s oceanic geography has fed its cities—economically, culturally, and politically.
In the first stage of our program, Farms in Motion, we embark on a four-day journey across Taiwan’s port cities, tracing the historical flow between agriculture and aquaculture. Through tasting, walking, and observing, we engage directly with the ingredients and landscapes that built Taiwan’s urban legacy.
Returning to the studio, the second stage invites participants to reimagine these coastal conditions through experimental design. At the intersection of urban form and geopolitical tension—especially in light of Taiwan’s critical position in global chip production—we confront the fragile balance between prosperity and risk. The ocean once offered abundance. Today, it reflects complexity and vulnerability.
Through drawing, modelling, and making, we pose a question—not to solve, but to provoke: What futures can we imagine for cities born of tide, shaped by trade, and framed by uncertainty?
2024 AUGUST 11-25
Yilan / Hualien
Taiwan
An Expedition into the Urbanity of Taiwan’s East Coast
Between the towering peaks of East Asia and the open sweep of the Pacific lies Taiwan’s East Coast—a land vast in scale and quiet in presence, protected by its geography, yet layered with forgotten histories. This is a place where beauty and contradiction coexist, where untouched landscapes veil centuries of movement, conflict, and transformation.
As part of this year’s AAVS Taiwan, we embark on an expedition—moving through terrains that are as politically charged as they are geologically rich. Here, the coastline is not merely scenic; it is strategic. Air force bases, naval ports, and undersea cables stake their claim beside fishing villages and sacred mountains. The East Coast, once called the “unsinkable aircraft carrier,” now sits on the fault lines of data, defense, and desire.
We traverse lands once carved for camphor, marble, and sugar. We follow the footsteps of Japanese settlers who brought rice fit for emperors, only to be erased after war. And we dig beneath the soil, into the ancient rhythms of Austronesian migration, where echoes of 6,000-year-old cities still pulse beneath layers of modern development.
This expedition is not only about uncovering what has been hidden, but about confronting the present: a region criticized for underdevelopment, even as its landscapes feed a booming tourist gaze. As we move across coastlines, valleys, and archaeological traces, we seek to understand a place where density is low but meaning runs deep.
Through fieldwork, observation, and design, we explore the unresolved questions of Taiwan’s East Coast. What defines a city at the edge? How do heritage, geopolitics, and economy converge on one stretch of land? And what future might emerge from a place caught between wilderness and world stage?
Participant experience
See past participants sharing their experiences and their works in each year’s expeditions.
French architect Yannis Mataillet share with us his experience joining our 2024 AAVS Urbanity from the Ocean Taiwan expedition. He explains how he discovered the programme, what he had created with his teammates, and a brief intro of the research in our AAVS 2025.
Yi Hsuan Lu, a student in architecture from Musashino Art University shared with us her experience in 2023's AAVS Taiwan Urbanity From The Ocean research programme. The video also introduced the theme of 2024 AAVS Taiwan. She has been accepted in the AA diploma school and joining in the academic year 2025 - 26.
