A groundbreaking architectural art installation called "Sailing Castle Ren'ai" has been unveiled in Taipei's historic Ren'ai Village, transforming the urban landscape into a poetic maritime vision. Created by artist Cheng Tsung FENG and his design studio, this 23-square-meter cultural architecture project reimagines the city's silhouette as a fleet of ships gathered at sea through large-scale installation art.
The installation is situated in Ren'ai Village, a neighborhood that flourished in the 1970s as a showcase for Taiwan's leading architects. The area's residential buildings reflect the strong influence of Bauhaus and modernist design principles, characterized by clean lines and simplified forms expressed through repeating grids of windows. These architectural elements served as direct inspiration for FENG's artistic interpretation.
As part of the Taiwan Lantern Festival, FENG extended his broader "Sailing Castle" series concept to translate the clustered urban landscape of Ren'ai Village into a vision of assembled sails across the sea. The installation employs meticulously arranged wooden structures that are layered to resemble a field of overlapping sails rising in orderly repetition, echoing the rhythm and proportion of the neighborhood's mid-century apartment blocks.
The artistic design creates a compelling interplay between vertical and horizontal elements that conveys both architectural discipline and nautical motion, suggesting a cityscape that simultaneously functions as a fleet waiting to embark. The installation reads as a sculptural abstraction of familiar buildings during daylight hours, while at night, lights shimmer randomly between the wooden sails, evoking the warm glow of windows that animate urban life.
These flickering lights represent moments of work, leisure, solitude, and community that occur within the shared framework of city living. Located within Dunren Park, a beloved gathering place for local residents, FENG's work functions not only as a stage-like structure but also as a communal landmark that invites visitor interaction.
The installation encourages people to pause, walk through, and inhabit this poetic reconstruction of their everyday surroundings. It serves as a ritual site where personal memories intersect with collective history, allowing the city's architectural past to resonate meaningfully with its present rhythms and contemporary urban experience.
"To board the ship, to raise the sail, to meet the wind, and to set forth toward the sea," the installation speaks symbolically of both departure and return. In the glowing wooden sails of Sailing Castle Ren'ai, the city itself becomes a vessel carrying its people home, creating a profound connection between urban architecture and maritime imagery that transforms how residents and visitors perceive their built environment.
