For this project, one of my first jobs in Taiwan, I sought 'inspiration' by looking around, and one of the things that strikes anyone who visits these parts the first few times is how all the buildings, old and new, are inexorably enveloped by a sort of 'mixed grillwork' on the windows and balconies, by tenants.

The reason cannot be protection from burglars (the grills are also on the 20th floor, and the house doors have ridiculous locks that open with a teaspoon), plus it is very dangerous in case of fire. So, there must be an irrational motivation, a very powerful one, and I thought I recognised it in the intolerance, all Chinese, for a too direct, 'brazen' relationship between the private and public spheres, and hence the propensity to put a filter between the two spheres, a sort of 'I see you and I don't see you'.

So, to keep them happy and to avoid them grilling my building, I grilled it a priori.

They really like it because, they say, it is hi-tech. In reality it is nothing special in terms of technology, but it respects their sensibility, and that is enough.