Xiu Zelan

Xiu Zelan (; 15 August 1925 – 27 February 2016), also written as Hsiu Tse-Lan, was a Taiwanese architect. Xue was born in Yuanling, Hunan. During World War II, she attended the Architecture Department of National Central University in Chongqing (Now Southeast University School of Architecture). In 1947 she entered the Taiwan Rail Bureau. She took charge of the Department of General Logistics and Engineering as an assistant engineer. Her modernist interpretations of traditional motifs gained the attention of Chiang Kai-shek, and in 1965 she took charge of Yangmingshan's Chung-Shan Building project. Designed to house state ceremonies, the Chung-Shan Building brought Xiu acclaim and the project was subsequently considered to be one of her crowning achievements and earned the popular title "Number 1 Female Architect of Taiwan". Subsequently, on April 30, 1967, Xiu was awarded the first Golden Tripod Award for Architecture (alongside fellow architects including Wang Da-hong, Chen Chi-Kwan, Chen Ren-he, Haigo T. H. Shen, and Yang Cho-cheng). In 2015, on the 50th anniversary of the Chung-Shan Building's completion, she was presented with a certificate of gratitude from the Taiwanese government. She was raised with four brothers. Her grandfather was a Qing dynasty official, and Xiu's parents, aunts, and uncles received a Western-style education.

In 1949, as the Chinese Civil War escalated, Xiu accepted a job invitation at the Taiwan Railways Administration and started the new chapter of her career in Taiwan.

Xiu met fellow engineer Fu Chi-kuan while working in the Department of General Logistics and Engineering in the TRA. They were later married in 1953 and had a son together. Xiu finished the Tri-Service General Hospital nursery school, her first building not linked to rail, in 1954.

In 1955, Xiu and her husband left their posts at the TRA and established a private practice together, the Tse Chun Architectural Firm, in the following year.

Private practice and rising fame The Tse Chun Architectural Firm was highly active between 1956 and 1966, completing several educational building projects. After traveling to Canada and the United States in 1967, where she visited suburban residential communities, Xiu began planning the , a planned community in Taipei. Fu was charged with sedition and jailed for three years starting in 1970. The Garden City project continued, and the couple refocused on the project after Fu's release. Through 1987, Garden City was the couple's main project, with few unrelated buildings completed in the 1980s.

Representative works Banqiao Station Chung-Shan Building Taipei Women's Teacher Junior College Viator High School Church Lanyang Girl's Middle School Auditorium Banqiao Senior High School Chung-Shan Girl's Middle School Auditorium Taipei Jingmei Girls School Library and Admin Building Chih Shan Junior High School Wu Feng Elementary School National Chia-Yi Girls' Senior High School Huwei Senior High School National Chung Hsing Senior High School Hualien Normal University Library Sun Moon Lake Teacher's Hall Taichung Teacher's Hall Yangming Senior High School Taipei Mingde Junior High School