‘Emotionalist’ Artist and Architect Tszwai So Completes All-Blue Experimental Retrofit Art Hotel in Taipei

London-based artist and architect Tszwai So has transformed a 50-year-old commercial building in the centre of Taipei into an art-focused hotel offering an emotional atmosphere for art exhibitions and cultural events.

London-based artist, architect, filmmaker and co-founder of the Emotionalism movement, Tszwai So has transformed a 50+ years old commercial building in central Taipei into an art- focused hotel for Taiwan-based affordable hotel chain Just Inn, serving as its new flagship.

The existing ten-story, 2,000m2 building with a basement was originally completed in 1970, during the White Terror era (the US-backed governing KMT’s deepest period of repression, when thousands of citizens were executed in Taiwan), as an office for an insurance company.

It is conveniently located just a few blocks away from the National Taiwan Museum and the main Taipei train station.

After serving various purposes over the past five decades, it was most recently operated as a mixed-use hotel with retail units on GF & 1F by a different chain.

It has now undergone a comprehensive renovation to accommodate 56 guestrooms on the upper floors, a proposed restaurant on the 1st floor (scheduled to open later this year), and, most importantly, a free public art space for art exhibitions, cultural events, or even busking on GF as the client would like to share the most commercially valuable floor space with the public.

The goal for the project is to launch an international artist-in-residence program centred around the Emotionalism movement.

Emotionalism is an art/architecture movement advocated by a group of academics, artists, architects, critics, and journalists from various parts of the world.

Early advocates include British-Chinese artist, architect, and filmmaker Tszwai So, British architectural critic and author Herbert Wright, as well as British-Mauritian artist and architectural designer Natasha Reid.

The group known as ‘the Emotionalists’ calls upon artists and architects to reflect on what it means to be human in an age dominated by artificial intelligence.

Their inaugural project was the short film entitled “E-motion-AI City” showcased at the Venice Biennale in 2021 made by Tszwai So, Andrew Alexander Mackay and Herbert Wright.

The same year, the curatorial proposal ‘Emotionalism’ led by Herbert Wright and Tszwai So made the final five shortlist for the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2022.

The Blue marks the group’s first architectural project and their most ambitious art and architecture initiative to date.

This also marks Tszwai So’s first architectural commission in Asia, employing an experimental ‘design-as-you-go’ approach.

Unlike most commercially commissioned projects, work began without any architectural drawings.

Tszwai So led the artists associated with Emotionalism from Just Inn to strip the building back to its core, embracing uncertainties and human errors by addressing design challenges as unexpected constraints emerged.

Waste materials from the stripping process were recycled wherever possible to create new artworks, finishes or furniture for the project.

During the design phase, Tszwai So, along with the clients, embarked on aimless walks through the old town of Taipei, guided by their emotions according to the principles of Psychogeography, seeking inspiration for the project.

The existing building has undergone multiple alterations since its completion in the 1970s as its function changed.

Some fenestrations were enlarged, and metal panels were later affixed to the façade, concealing roughly half of the windows.

The design concept for the façade acknowledges the imprints of time and peels back the added materials to reveal its core.

A layer of blue glaze inspired by Taiwan’s national bird, the Taiwan blue magpie, as well as artist Yves Klein’s journey of developing his own blue, by using locally sourced iron oxide in Taiwan, will envelop the entire building.

This protective blue layer serves to guard against water ingress, eliminating the need for the removal of tons of mosaics in a dilapidated state.

All furniture is kept and sanded manually and reused, all walls and ceilings are finished with lime-based plaster without paints (except the iconic ten storey high all-blue staircase finished with water-based products).

The reception desk is made from the steel staircase taken down on the spot, and the chandelier above is also made of waste steel taken onsite, paying homage to Alejandro Aravena’s installation for the Venice Biennale 2016.

The floor surface of the GF lobby, the public pavements, and columns feature a collaborative artwork made of quotes on AI and human creativity contributed by over 50 artists, architects, and thinkers from around the world, such as Francine Houben (principal and creative director of global architects Mecanoo), Wolfgang Buttress (artist and musician whose works include designing the UK Pavilion at Expo Milan 2015, subsequently adapted as The Hive in Kew Gardens, London), Jo Noero (designer of The Red Location Museum in South Africa, winner of the RIBA Lubetkin Prize in 2006), and even ChatGPT.

The installation is punctuated with smashed glasses recycled from the building waste on site, which could be interpreted as fallen trees or teardrops, serving as an emotional tribute to one of the clients’ late mother who unexpectedly passed away at the start of the project.

Emotionalism is a 21st century art and architecture movement putting focus on human emotions in the context of contemporary societal challenges.

It emerged in 2019-20, conceived through two parallel strands that coalesced into an evolving discourse.