Today, the Golden Pin Design Award organizer announced the Taiwanese architect Joshua Jih Pan as the recipient of its 2023 Honorary Award. Pan will officially receive the award, which is a token of recognition for his achievements in and contributions to contemporary architecture in Taiwan, on the evening of Friday, December 1^st, 2023 at the annual award ceremony taking place at the Taipei Performing Arts Center.

The Golden Pin Design Award’s Honorary Award recognizes designers who are committed to the research, promotion, and practice of design in Taiwan and who have achieved extraordinary feats in or made significant contributions to the industry. The goal of the award is to encourage and inspire designers and the design industry at large. Candidates are nominated by Taiwan-based design associations/organizations or Golden Pin Design Award jury members for the year, and the eventual recipient is selected by the jury. This year’s recipient, Pan, has more than 40 years of experience in architecture under his belt.

In 1964, Pan hopped on a plane bound for the United States of America to pursue studies in architecture. He studied at Rice University, where he obtained a baccalaureate degree in architecture. He then got his master’s degree in architecture and urban planning from Columbia University before beginning his career as an architect in the US. After working for nearly a decade at internationally renowned architecture firms such as Philip Johnson, Davis Brody, and CUHA, Pan returned to Taiwan in 1976 and started his own company five years later. In 2000, he expanded his company into JJP Architects & Planners, which focuses on passing down architectural knowledge, techniques, and culture to emerging architects. To date, JJP has hundreds of completed projects in its portfolio, including residential buildings, offices, schools, medical institutions, libraries, and a wide range of other building types across Taiwan. The company has received countless domestic and international architectural design awards for more than 150 of its works. Personally, Pan has won the National Award for Arts, the GVM Summit Lifetime Achievement Award, the NCKU Outstanding Alumni Award, and the R.O.C. Outstanding Architects Award, among other accolades. Pan is the first ever Taiwanese architect to receive a fellowship from the American Institute of Architects, winning him the coveted “FAIA” suffix.

In his 40+ years of practice, Pan has dedicated himself to realizing the design concept of “co-prosperity.” His works embody his care for humanity and respect for the environment and showcase how buildings can exist in harmony with their surroundings. He worked with fellow architect Wang Chiu-Hwa to design the Chang Ching Yu Memorial Library for Chung Yuan Christian University. The University, completed in 1985, was the first library in Taiwan that featured a modern open-shelf design and that incorporated the then emerging concepts of green building. At the 2013 Taiwan Lantern Festival, Pan and his team designed a lantern installation named “Halo of Sustainability” for Delta Electronics Foundation, stunning the audience with its spectacular visuals. As a temporary arts installation, the main steel structure of “Halo of Sustainability” was made with 100% recyclable materials, an innovative strategy that brought new possibilities to making temporary art works more sustainable. Furthermore, Pan is also one of the pioneers in designing plants for technology parks in Taiwan. He insists on human-centered and environmentally sustainable design to create ecological, lively, and productive plants that can be constructed quickly to meet the rapidly growing need of the industry, revolutionizing people’s idea of what a tech plant could be. TSMC’s Plant 14 and Headquarters and ASUSTeK’s Guandu Plant were both notable examples of plants designed by JJP Architects & Planners.

In addition to his professional career, Pan attaches great importance to the cultivation of talent and passing down of architectural heritage. For more than 30 years following his return to Taiwan, Pan served as an adjunct lecturer at architecture- and design-related programs at Chung Yuan Christian University, National Taipei University of Technology, Tunghai University, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, benefiting nearly 1,000 students. Pan has also been very active in academic exchanges between Taiwan and China. He has given speeches at Tsinghua University and Tianjin University in Beijing, Southeast University in Nanjing, and Tongji University in Shanghai. Meanwhile, the Taipei-based JJP Architects & Planners has been providing internship opportunities for architecture students from around the world in the past four decades.

When he learned of the news of this award, a sentimental Pan told the award organizer that the training received by architects is to ensure that they remember the significance of architecture as a vessel for cultural, historical, technological, and artistic heritage, and understand the deep, long-lasting impact of architecture on cities, human lives and behavior, and the environment. Faced with rising challenges such as global warming and resource shortages, architects must pay attention to every last detail in their design. “All I ask of myself is to find the most suitable and least harmful way of design that can stand the test of time, answer to human and environmental needs, and keep up with my own standards,” said Pan with humility as he thanked the Golden Pin Design Award for the Honorary Award, “and only then can I live up to the vision of the Golden Pin Design Award.”

Public recognition will be officially given to Pan as recipient of the Honorary Award at the 2023 Golden Pin Design Awards ceremony, which will be held on Friday, December 1^st. Winners of the highest honors, the Best Design Awards and the Special Annual Awards, will also be announced. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the official YouTube channel in both Chinese and English. For the latest news, please follow updates on the official website and the social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and X/Twitter.