Cha Mi Chinese Medicine is located in Songshan District, Taipei — a well-established area bordered by a traditional market to the north and Taipei's core financial district to the south. Unlike typical NHI clinics that place their entrance on the ground floor, this clinic sits on the third floor to protect patient privacy. The interior spans 150 ping / 495 square meters and includes a consultation center, a dispensary, dedicated treatment rooms, and a private laboratory.

A centralization formed through decentralization — the excessive circulation length created by conventional consultation-room layouts — was the first challenge this project faced. It's also a problem shared by current floor plans at National Taiwan University Hospital and Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital: long circulation paths are hard on elderly patients and create blind spots in management. The plan uses a satellite-style layout instead, removing long circulation paths across the treatment zone and consolidating reception, dispensary, and waiting areas into a single centralized circle. The central circle works like a seed — once it's placed, the remaining functions grow around it naturally. A softly rounded style reduces the psychological pressure of a clinic visit and the cold, clinical feel of typical medical spaces. Materials mix pure white with the texture of oak, stripping away excess color to leave only calm. The main walls step through three different heights, letting light pass through and resolving the lack of natural light in the consultation rooms. One detail worth noting: the registration counter holds six oversized test tubes planted with seasonal Chinese medicinal herbs, swapped out as the seasons change. Few people ever see traditional medicine in this state, before it's processed into medicine — a plant must die before it can become medicine, yet here it's shown alive. That faint contradiction mirrors life and death itself, the same cycle a medical practice must face every day.

Dr. Chen Shun-Ting Dr. Chen Shun-Ting is an attending physician in radiation oncology and also an attending physician of Chinese medicine at Tzu Chi. After years of practicing medicine, he combines the strengths of Western and Chinese medicine, specializing in pharmacological analysis. He was previously a highly regarded Chinese medicine practitioner in northern Taiwan.