As Above So Below
AS ABOVE SO BELOW
Khaa (Kuo+huang And Associates)
ARCHITECTS
Khaa (Kuo+huang And Associates)
LEAD ARCHITECT
Hsuyuan Kuo
LEAD TEAM
Hsuyuan Kuo, Effie Huang
ENGINEERING & CONSULTING > STRUCTURAL
Envision
DESIGN TEAM
Jing-jia Huang
PHOTOGRAPHS
OS studio, 也行影像製作公司, Olivier Marceny
AREA
60 m²
YEAR
2025
LOCATION
Xihu, Taiwan
CATEGORY
Cultural Architecture
English description provided by the architects.
Invited by a traditional Taiwanese steel enterprise, KHAA seeks to transform the public's perception of steel from heaviness and rigidity into lightness and flexibility.
Through this project, steel structures are reimagined as three small architectural compositions, each a gentle verse singing of poetry and song.
On a platform ten meters above the ground, three skylights open up, with three accompanying structures.
They are like sculptures, objects for viewing, but at the same time are small buildings with which our bodies can interact. Each structure has stairs leading up and down.
The thickness of the steel plates in each stair step and the size of the handrails have been determined by structural requirements.
This means the underlying structure is no longer hidden, but is revealed with all its details and joints.
These ascending and descending staircases awaken in our bodies a new perceptual awareness of the site and its spaces.
Through our walking postures and our movements up and down, our human hands and footsteps become a gauge by which to measure mechanics and order.
The stairs are not just mechanisms for vertical connection in space, and neither are the platforms just resting points. Instead, they are spaces to be filled in with the observations of explorers.
Viewers are active participants in the theater, and objects become producers who awaken our perceptions and generate our sense of place. The three structures stand independently, facing one another.
Their number, three, also creates a sense of grouping. The white steel plates extending from the stairs allude to the idea of a constellation, weaving a subtle connection across the entire site.
Climbing upward on the stairs is a performance, and descending is an echo. "As above, so below" – what is above echoes what is below; what is below reflects what is above. Heaven and earth, echoing and reflecting each other, are one.
