Wang Chiu-Hwa

Wang Chiu-Hwa (; 8 August 1925 – 14 June 2021) was a Taiwanese architect noted for her work with libraries in Taiwan. Due to the many libraries she designed and the fact she pioneered the earliest modern university library in Taiwan, Wang was given the unofficial title of "Taiwan’s 'Mother of Libraries'".

Biography

Studies and work in the United States: 1940s–1979 Wang was born in Beiping on 8 August 1925. Her father was Wang Shijie, a scholar and politician who moved to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War, her mother, Xiao Dehua, was a painter, and the musician Xiao Youmei was her maternal uncle. After earning her bachelor's degree in architecture at the National Central University in Chongqing, China, which was China's first university programme for architecture. She then studied at Columbia University in New York City and obtained her master's degree in architecture in 1949. She was one of the first Asian women to study architecture at University of Washington and the Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Wang earned her architecture licence in 1960. She began working for him part-time as a designer while being his student, and then worked for him full-time for almost thirty years, starting as an associate in 1960 and then becoming a partner. She is quoted as saying “as a designer, you must concern yourself first and foremost with the well-being of the majority, not just the interests of a few wealthy people.”

Wang Chiu-Hwa died of heart failure at Taipei City Renai Hospital at around 2 p.m. on 14 June 2021, less than two months before her 96th birthday. A special feature of the library is the attention given to energy conservation. Natural lighting and ventilation were made possible through the use of double-height spaces, also providing visual fluidity and transparency. This was her first major project after returning to Taiwan, and it won her the Taiwan Provincial Building Design Award and the National Building Design Award for Passive Energy Efficiency.

Over the next three decades, she designed a number of large and award-winning buildings in Taiwan, 1988: Medical Research Building & Conference Center for Veterans General Hospital in Taichung 1989: Gymnasium at Chung Yuan Christian University 1989: Main Library of National Chang Hwa Normal University 1998: Founder's Memorial Library at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei 1997–2004: Holistic Education Village at Chung Yung Christian University 2000–2005: Gymnasium at Chinese Culture University

Noted for her work on libraries in Taiwan, Wang Chiu-Hwa was affectionately known as the "Mother of Taiwanese libraries". in Hong Kong.