TRANSFORMATION

From Burlap to Beauty: A Story of Resourcefulness and Legacy

The transformation of buildings—from factories to museums, warehouses to sanctuaries for art—isn’t just about architecture.
It’s about values.

It reflects something deeply personal to Marlene Yu: a belief in reuse, reinvention, and resourcefulness.
And that belief began when she was a little girl growing up in Taiwan during World War II.

At the time, under Japanese occupation, supplies were scarce.
One day, Marlene found a U.S. aid shipment of grain had arrived—and with it, heavy burlap sacks. These sacks were being repurposed by families for clothing, including rough, scratchy men’s underwear.

But Marlene, still just a child, had another idea. She secretly took a few scraps to make a doll—because she had no toys.
She feared her mother would be furious.

Instead, her mother saw the doll... and began to cry.
It wasn’t anger. It was grief. It was love. It was a moment of understanding how creativity and survival were woven together.

That instinct—to take what you have and make something meaningful—has stayed with Marlene her entire life.

Whether in how she paints, how she builds, how she lives, or how she inspires others, she teaches us that beauty isn’t always made from what’s new.
Sometimes, it’s what we transform that holds the greatest power.