The architecture of xrange: Inspired by constraints

Named by Wallpaper in 2007 as one of the world’s most exciting new architects, XRANGE, an architecture and design firm founded by Taipei based architect Grace Cheung and the industrial designer Royce YC Hong, is now one of the most prestigious studios in Taiwan. Their work has won several awards and been featured in numerous international publications including Monocle, Frame, Surface, I.D. Magazine, Icon, Arbitare, Dwell, the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times, among many more.

The Architecture of XRANGE provides a privileged insight into how this groundbreaking architectural studio works, especially their innovative approach in which their primary inspiration is derived from the constraints of a given project, hence the subtitle, Inspired by constraints. The principals’ cosmopolitan international outlook and extensive experience have helped the studio to establish a bold style often including distinctive materials that offer original solutions to specific urban contexts across Asia.

The book shows how XRANGE’s unconventional architecture places an emphasis on systemization and tactility, resulting in audacious but grounded and utterly unique buildings. To do so, it features texts by the principal architects, leading architecture critics, lavish documentation and photography, and in-depth examinations of such significant projects as The Wandering Walls, Ant Farm House, Stone Cloud, and many more.

Grace Cheung AIA
Founder and Principal Architect of XRANGE. Holding a Master of Architecture from Columbia University, Grace Cheung is a USA licensed architect living and practicing in Taipei. Prior to co-founding XRANGE with Royce YC Hong , Cheung gained her experience in top offices around the world, at Patkau Architects in Vancouver, Bernard Tschumi Architects in New York and OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) Asia in Hong Kong and Rotterdam. Born and raised in Malaysia before immigrating to Canada in her teens, Cheung has lived, studied and worked on 3 continents: America, Europe and Asia. Seeing herself as a front-line worker in the challenging urban context of developing Asia, Cheung uses her cultural fluency and international background to steer XRANGE towards a broad critical point of view with the methods and materials of architecture. A TEDxTaipei speaker, Cheung had taught at multiple Taiwanese universities and is a frequent lecturer, guest critic and juror at home and abroad. Equally passionate about art, she is also the Vice Chairman and Executive Director of Project Seek, a non-profit creative platform founded 2014 for emerging artists in Taiwan.

Aric?Chen?is the newly-appointed?General?and?Artistic?Director?of Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Dutch national museum and institute of architecture,?design, and digital culture in Rotterdam. Previously, he was a curator and writer based in Shanghai, where he was Professor and Founding?Director?of the Curatorial Lab at the College of?Design?& Innovation at Tongji University. In addition, he served as Curatorial?Director?for the?Design?Miami fairs in Miami Beach (US) and Basel (Switzerland), with an edition launching in Shanghai in November 2021. From 2012-2019,?Chen?was the first Lead Curator for?Design?and Architecture, and later Curator-at-Large, for?M+, the new museum for visual culture opening this year in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District.

Aaron Betsky is Director of the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech. Previously, he was President of the School of Architecture at Taliesin. A critic of art, architecture, and design, Mr. Betsky is the author of over twenty books on those subjects and writes a twice-weekly blog for architectmagazine.com, Beyond Buildings. Trained as an architect and in the humanities at Yale University, Mr. Betsky has served as the Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum (2006-2014) and the Netherlands Architecture Institute (2001-2006), as well as Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995-2001). In 2008, he also directed the 11th Venice International Biennale of Architecture. His latest books are Fifty Lessons from Frank Lloyd Wright (2021), Making It Modern (2019) and Architecture Matters (2019). Anarchitecture: The Monster Leviathan will be published by The MIT Press in 2022.

James Moore McCown is a Boston-based architectural journalist who writes for numerous design publications including Metropolis, Architect’s Newspaper and AD PRO Architectural Digest. He has collaborated with Oscar Riera Ojeda on several books including the Architecture in Detail series which comprised four volumes: Elements, Materials, Colors and Spaces. McCown studied journalism at Loyola Univer-sity New Orleans and holds an ALM (Master’s Degree) in the history of art and architecture from Harvard University, where his thesis on modern Brazilian architecture received an Honorable Mention, Dean’s Award, Best ALM Thesis (2007). He lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

Oscar Riera Ojeda is an editor and designer based in the US, China, and Argentina. Born in 1966, in Buenos Aires, he moved to the United States in 1990. Since then, he has published over three hundred books, assembling a remarkable body of work notable for its thoroughness of content, timeless character, and sophisticated and innovative craftsmanship. • Oscar Riera Ojeda’s books have been published by many prestigious publishing houses across the world, including Birkhäuser, Byggförlaget, The Monacelli Press, Gustavo Gili, Thames & Hudson, Rizzoli, Damiani, Page One, ORO editions, Whitney Library of Design, and Taschen. • Oscar Riera Ojeda is also the creator of numerous architectural book series, including Ten Houses, Contemporary World Architects, The New American House and The New American Apartment, Architecture in Detail, and Single Building. • His work has received many international awards, in-depth reviews, and citations. He is a regular contributor and consultant for several publications in the field. • In 2001 Oscar Riera Ojeda founded ORO Editions, a company at which he was responsible for the completion of nearly one hundred titles. In 2008 he established his current publishing venture, Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers, a firm with fifteen employees and locations across three continents.