McPhetres to lend design skills in Taiwan

Saipan’s own Samuel Jose McPhetres is on the island for a brief stopover to visit family and friends before heading off to Taiwan for a special project on one of that island’s design studios.

McPhetres, who is only 26 years old and currently taking up his master’s degree in Architecture at the University of Washington, revealed the details about his project last Tuesday during the regular meeting of the Saipan Rotary Club at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.

He said he would be joining 11 other graduate students who are also taking up the same degree. They will be staying in Meinung, Taiwan, for a month-long studio design work called the Meinung Field Studio 2005 project.

McPhetres said the studio is located in a valley of tobacco and rice fields in Meinung, which is one of southern Taiwan’s most scenic and culturally important townships. Although he doesn’t know his specific task yet, he was told he would be lending his design skills in developing and renovating an old courtyard house.

McPhetres said the design process would take at least a month to finish. He is set to leave Saipan next week to join the team in Taiwan.

In the studio, the students from the university will form interdisciplinary and cross-cultural teams with local activists, university students and residents to develop unified design projects, as well as plan frameworks to address composite sets of urban and rural issues.

He said other studio projects might include design and planning of a historic district combined with a farmers market, a demonstration organic farm in the form of an outdoor “eco-museum,” or an “eco-lake” combining water treatment, environmental education, and organic farming.

McPhetres said the Meinung Field Studio 2005 project would challenge disciplinary and cultural boundaries, as well as the conceptual divide between urban and rural impressions.

He said Meinung reminds him a lot of Saipan, even though he has not seen the area yet. Based on the initial research of the group, he said it seems that Meinung is similar to the setting of the CNMI some 18 years ago. He said the islands’ culture is even comparable with that of Meinung’s.

Like most rural townships in Taiwan and many developing regions, Meinung is facing challenges from a globalized process of economic restructuring, influx of tourism, and urbanization, according to a University of Washington web link on the project.

The link raised some question about these challenges like how design and planning can offer tools for local communities to respond to these forces and how designers and planners can work with local activists to develop alternative visions of local development and conservation.

This month-long project is being done in collaboration with one of the most dynamic and resilient community organizations in Taiwan, the Meinung People’s Association, to develop design and planning strategies for cultural and environmental sustainability for the township.

McPhetres said if he were given a chance by the local government to work on Saipan he would warmly welcome the opportunity to share his talents and skills in architecture and designs.