Eugene Tsui, Ph.D- sometimes spelled Tssui - (born Eugene Tsui; September 14, 1954, in Cleveland, Ohio, USA) is a Chinese-American architect, urban planner, environmental designer, author, industrial designer and clothing designer; Chinese name, Cui Yue Jun.
Dr. Tsui is known as a multi-talented polymath maintaining offices in Emeryville, California, USA and Shenzhen, China. In addition to architectural and industrial design contracts, he currently conducts research at South China University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China, Harbin University of Technology, Shenzhen, China; and Yu Cai Schools, Shenzhen, China.[1]
His varied designs include the futuristic residence for his parents in Berkeley, California, the Watsu Center School, the Ecological House of the Future, the Tsui Design and Research complex, the Strait of Gibraltar Floating Bridge, the Shenzhen Tower, the Ultima Two Mile High City, the Nexus Mobile Floating Sea City, the Emeryville Nature Study Center, and the Telos Education Center.[2] These examples of both built and proposed concept designs express Dr. Tsui’s unique and original approach to architecture and urban planning.[3]
Tsui’s overarching approach, called “Evolutionary Architecture" arose from his in-depth study of living organisms and natural processes. This focus on Nature-Based Design has influenced many of his peers.[4] All of these projects reflect Tsui’s fascination with, and his 30 years of research into, biological and geological design evolution.[5] For instance, the residence he designed and built for his parents is based on the world’s most durable organism, the Tardigrade. The house has elicited particular enthusiasm from the public. The house design has received an enormous amount of print and television coverage around the world.[6]
Eugene Tsui was born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, in 1954, to Chinese parents from Beijing, China (mother) and Wuhu, Anhui Province, China (father). His parents came to the United States to graduate schools in Physical Therapy and Physics/Mechanical Engineering, respectively. Dr. Tsui has no siblings. His family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, in 1956 and stayed until 1972. Tsui attended University Elementary and High School in Minneapolis from first through the 12th grades.[7] He also attended the Minneapolis Institute for Talented Youth, to develop music and performance abilities, and the West Bank School of Music, in music composition and ear training. Much of Tsui’s life-pattern of engaging and developing multiple interests was formed during this time of his life. He excelled at track-and-field, swimming, martial arts, Flamenco dance, Chinese medicine, dietics, concert piano, drums, the design and construction of inventions, industrial design and architecture. Tsui grew up in an extremely traditional family environment. He's always believed that most of his abilities were inherited rather than taught. From his father, he inherited three-dimensional visualization, precision drawing ability and single-mindedness. From his mother he gained his artistic, athletic and musical ability as well as his focus, self-reliance, perseverance and public speaking ability. He was an iconoclastic and rebellious child exploring his own path in life.[8] In 1972, Tsui and his family were among the first American families allowed to re-enter mainland China after President Richard Nixon opened relations between the two countries. The Tsui family stayed in China for the summer months before moving to Montreal, Canada where they were joined by long awaited family members allowed to emigrate from mainland China. Eugene Tsui attended McGill University as an engineering student and left a year later to live with Lynda Sky (née, Raino) with whom he had two sons, Paolo and Sorell. In 1976, after four years of working in other architects’ offices, he attended Columbia University Graduate School of Design and was recommended to apprentice with Bruce Goff. Columbia University professors said, “What you are looking for, we cannot teach you”. He was accepted by the maverick architect, Goff, and began a six year apprenticeship. In 1979, he met and lived with Deborah Soward and was eventually married to her for three years until 1986. During this time, he attended the University of Oregon and completed a five year professional degree in three-and-one-half years. Architecture professors there tried to expel him three times due to, “conceptual differences”. He completed his apprenticeship at Goff’s death in 1982. He then won a national fellowship award to travel to Stuttgart, Germany, to meet with Frei Otto, the designer of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics buildings.[8] In 1983, Tsui entered the University of California, Berkeley, completing Master’s degrees in Architecture, City and Regional Planning, and an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Architecture and Education, within five years. In 1989, he founded, Tsui Design and Research, Inc., a design laboratory and office in the San Francisco Bay area. In 1990, he married, Elisabeth Montgomery, a filmmaker and sociologist. They have one daughter, Chase, born in 1991.[8] In 1999, Tsui and his family moved to Shenzhen, China where he was a Visiting Professor of Ecological Architecture, returning to the USA in 2003. In 2006, he began work on Telos, a school and design laboratory to be constructed on 178 acres (0.72 km2) in Mount Shasta, California, USA.[9] In 2009, he was a Visiting Scholar at South China University of Science and Technology with a contract until 2012. In 2010, he was asked to be a Visiting Professor at Harbin Graduate Institute of Technology in Shenzhen, China.[10] In 2010 he became a Foreign Expert in Education, creating an “Innovation and Foresight” education laboratory at Yu Cai School in Shenzhen, China, which is presently under construction.[11] He is also a Senior Lecturer and Instructor at the University of California, Berkeley, and teaching courses in Biomimicry, Industrial Design, Engineering, Evolutionary Design, Ethno-Ecology and Ecological Behavioral Change in their Sustainability, Arts, Design and Engineering Program.[12] Tsui’s impressive array of endeavors, abilities and the diversity of his accomplishments extend far beyond architecture. He is a four-time Senior Olympics All Around Gymnastics Champion, a Six-Time World Champion in amateur boxing, eight-time US Presidential Sports Award winner, a performing and recording musician in film soundtracks, inventor, research scientist, international lecturer and professor of design and ecology, globally published clothing designer and author and regular featured personality on international documentary films and television. He and Elisabeth reside in Emeryville, California, USA and Shenzhen and Guangzhou, China, surrounded by his parents, daughter, sons, and four grandchildren.[8]
Dr. Tsui’s work might be categorized as Biomimetic. He is considered one of the main pioneers of nature-based architecture and came to international attention with his first major publication, Evolutionary Architecture: Nature as A Basis for Design, published by Wiley and Sons in 1999.[5] Tsui consistently refers to his work as Evolutionary to underline the fact that it is not mimicking the appearances of nature’s organisms, but rather is seeking to comprehend and express the underlying structure, processes and functional efficiency of natural organisms and apply them to human-made structures.[13] Tsui is sometimes associated with the Organic and the Biomorphic school of thought originated by Frank Lloyd Wright, Erich Mendelsohn, Antonio Gaudi and architects of the Expressionist and Art Nouveau schools. Tsui’s work radically departs from these references by his scientific study and testing of living organisms and habitats and his effective exploration and development of new materials that are not harmful to the natural environment. His ecological design requirements such as minimizing or eliminating the use of electrical power, plant-based water cleaning systems, solar ovens, maximizing aerodynamics, use of compost toilets, minimizing the use of materials and the footprint of the building while achieving maximum structural strength and the development of designs that cannot be destroyed by natural disasters, extend his design work far beyond the traditional definitions of referenced architecture.[5] An exhibition of his designs at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, in 2004 entitled, Zoomorphic, was showcased alongside the works of Norman Foster and Santiago Calatrava, positioning Tsui among those international architects who align their work with the intrinsic efficiency and beautiful diversity of nature.[14]
Tsui’s work has been criticized for:
In the USA, Tsui’s work centers on building the Telos School and Laboratory, the Telos Public Visitation Center and the ZED (Zero Energy Dwelling), all to be located in and around Mount Shasta, California, USA. In China, he is involved with design competitions and ecological tourism parks. He developed large apartment complexes based upon the African Termite’s Nest, which is being researched by two teams at the South China University of Science and Technology in Guangzhou, China.[15] He has also designed an ecological icon, The Shenzhen Tower, for the city of Shenzhen, China, which features 92 large windmills, 70,000 square meters of solar panels and a floating forest of Mangrove trees - enough to clean the waters of the entire Shenzhen Bay.[9] Tsui’s China work includes projects that demonstrate the functional superiority of nature-based shapes and materials under extreme disaster force circumstances. In this capacity, he presents architectural solutions to earthquakes, typhoons, tsunami wave destruction, hurricanes and fire.[5] Believing that education is the most effective way to change behaviors and attitudes, Dr. Tsui has implemented an education program for grade school, middle school,[16] high school and college students [12] that develops the individual imagination and innovative thinking and equips students with “anticipatory thinking.” Such thinking develops the capacity to anticipate concerns and problems in the future, before they exist. He continues to give presentations to professors and government officials about behavioral change, preservation of the natural environment and creating a new vocabulary for the built environment.[17]
Dr. Eugene Tsui has a reputation for educating, nurturing and mentoring students. He has an ongoing internship apprentice program with students coming from various continents of the world. Many are now deans of university departments, practicing architects, authors, ecology activists, contractors, city planners and corporate executives. He has taken on individuals with no design education or training and encouraged them to develop their design skills.[18] Many of his apprentices have gone on to prominent universities and renowned international design firms.[19] Tsui’s office atmosphere is much like a graduate design studio at the Paris Beaux Arts — it is a lively, activity-filled environment with ever-present music, noisy tools and vigorous discussion.[8] Currently he is organizing a China/USA design student exchange program between the universities in California and various Chinese universities in conjunction with a professional development internship program.[12]
Dr. Tsui’s breadth of endeavors is difficult to categorize. He excels at seemingly unrelated activities yet has been featured in many documentary films discussing the vital importance of interrelating these activities to the benefit of all. This interdisciplinary outlook is perhaps the most difficult to understand.[13] As a World and Senior Olympics Champion athlete (gymnastics and amateur boxing) he speaks frequently and publicly about the human body as a resource of functional design ideas which can be applied to many other fields such as architecture, industrial design, clothing design, city planning, inventions, music and language.[20] In his public presentations he often performs on the piano and drums and gives a demonstration in boxing to emphasize the issue of every individual following their interests and passions in life in order to relish diversity and refrain from specialization.[11]
Tsui has been, and continues to be, featured globally in many documentary television programs such as National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, The History Channel, MTV, The Disney Channel, The BBC, PBS, CNN, NBC, China CCTV Television, India Television, Euro Television, Television Morocco and many others. He has been the subject of documentary films in the USA, Canada, France, Japan and China.[21] French film Director, Laurent Le Gall, has been filming a feature documentary on Tsui for the past five years.[22] A twelve part documentary film is being organized by MCTV Channel 15 in Mount Shasta, California. Dr. Tsui also composes and performs music for documentary films having completed, in 2010, two soundtracks for USA multiple award-winning film Director, Melody Miller.[23]
Tsui's design school and laboratory in Mount Shasta, California and in Shenzhen, China will become the permanent education and experimentation facility for his work in the East and the West. He is developing a twelve part television series whose episodes explore the topics of biologic architecture, city and regional planning, nature and science, music, fine art, education, athletics, ecological thinking, biographic life, design, every-day life and humanity’s present and future.[13] He is also writing a new book regarding the ecological state of the planet and the need for humanity to radically change our attitudes about life, design and success. Dr. Tsui’s work is gaining more widespread understanding and support from established institutions and universities. His books have been voted, “recommended reading”, by the Royal Institute of British Architects and the American Institute of Building Design.[5] Prominent universities are seeking his insights and practical knowledge to teach the new generation of students the application of nature’s principles to survive the future.[10] He continues to lecture widely to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.[11]