Asian architecture paper

Asian Architecture [ARC 60403 /2234]

PROJECT 1: CASE STUDY

The Fusion of Traditional Taiwanese Courtyard Dwellings

and Modern Bioclimatic Technology

Liu Jyue Yow . 1007P74080

Aaron Tan Weng Ming . 322400

Lee Pui San . 319089

Yong Yu Joon . 318299

Beh Nianzi . 319445

Schani Daniel . 318788

LECTURER: Nicholas Ng

SUBMISSION DATE: 29th November 2016

The Fusion of Traditional Taiwanese Courtyard Dwellings and Modern Bioclimatic Technology


Table of Contents Page

Abstract ___________________________________________________________ 2

1.0 Introduction _________________________________________________ 3

2.0 An Overview of Traditional Taiwanese Courtyard Dwellings ____________ 4

3.0 Vernacular Forms Preserved in Spring House _______________________ 6

4.0 Design Considerations of Spring House ___________________________ 8

5.0 Local Contextual Understanding _________________________________ 12

6.0 Taiwanese Bioclimatic Architecture _______________________________ 17

6.1 Courtyard House, Dotze Innovations Studio

6.2 Beitou National Library, Bio-Architecture Formosana

7.0 Self Sustainability Technology Adopted by Spring House ______________ 22

8.0 Conclusion __________________________________________________ 26

9.0 References __________________________________________________ 27

ARC 2213/2234 Asian Architecture 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1crbZxqH1G2T-qZQaKptmZcZSPFpa1DuOIyJbyMjX7KI/edit#_Toc386185941














Abstract As a result of a long history of colonialism and immigrant societies, Taiwan’s

many Chinese, Japanese, local and western style buildings stands as a reflection of

the island’s cultural diversity. With rapid globalisation, the issue of preserving valuable

regional heritage in a position where tradition is in fast decline is crucial.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight and demonstrate the importance of

the merging of traditional Taiwanese values and modern day considerations. The

presence of bioclimatic architecture in Spring House introduces new steps in creating

better architecture through the use of traditional vernacular architecture, while

incorporating modern technological advancements promotes self-sustainability in

preparation for unforeseeable natural disasters.

In order to aid the research, literature reviews based on the field of bioclimatic

architecture in East Asia and Taiwan itself were studied. To further understand the

merging of traditional and modern values, published works on Taiwanese courtyard

housing were analysed. To produce a wider and more in depth study of the issue,

research on varied Taiwanese bioclimatic architecture must be conducted. Spring

House by WLA, alongside Courtyard House by Dotze Studio and Beitou National

Library will be presented.

Adopting a base design derived from traditional Taiwanese courtyard housing;

by manipulating the form and spaces within the housing, Spring House allows for a

practical living environment while conserving the core beliefs of a traditional Taiwanese

society. Situated at a location with abundant rainfall but limited water resources,

exposed to typhoons and seismic events, the client requested at the outset with the

idea of self-supply, rainwater reuse and disaster prevention architecture strategies.

Site context remains as an important deciding factor in Taiwanese architecture

design. With a low percentage of buildable land and most of the existing housings old

and grey, Taiwan has taken an approach to make old buildings green, as well as new

buildings that would coexist well with current structures. As a nation with great

technology advancement as well as a great pride in its rich history, a seamless

combination of old and new is highly attainable, as demonstrated in Spring House.



1.0 Introduction

Being a typical immigrant society, the faces of Taiwanese architecture has

been serving as an embodiment of the diversification of mainstream Chinese

architecture. Han immigrants from Southern China made up much of Taiwan’s

architectural, social, and cultural identity since the 17th century. Today, Taiwan’s

architectural style is a representation of the long history of foreign rule and influences.

Spring House, Guiren District, Tainan demonstrates the importance of cultural

awareness and Taiwanese traditional values. The name “Guiren ” itself reflects a

respect towards the past while embracing the future. The ideology is demonstrated in

the choice of materials, building form, orientation and dimensions; all with consideration

to its surrounding location. In addition, due to the disaster prone nature of the location,

building sustainability and disaster prevention measures have been explored and

implemented. Utilising bricks- typically used in traditional courtyard housing, and the

materiality of steel, it allowed the structure to survive scales of earthquakes. Alongside

the Feng Shui beliefs that buildings should sit ‘leaning against mountains and facing

waters’, Spring House was orientated so that the structure would receive maximum

sunlight in the winter and wind in the summer, while solar panels and rainwater

collection systems allows for energy conservation and self sustainability.

This paper will investigate what approach Taiwan has taken to preserve the

traditions of its society, allowing for a modern lifestyle to exist within a traditional

Taiwanese courtyard dwelling, while adapting to needs of the environment; through

responding to the following research questions:

1: What are the elements of a traditional vernacular courtyard housing?

2: What are the design considerations of Spring House?

3: What are the traditional courtyard forms preserved in the Spring House?

4: What are the considerations taken for local site context to achieve architectural

uniformity?

5: How has Taiwan tackled the merging of architecture and bioclimatic designs?

6: What are the self sustainability and disaster prevention technologies

demonstrated in Spring House?



2.0 An Overview of Traditional Taiwanese Courtyard Dwellings

Having a unique subtropical island climate, courtyard housing has been a

staple in Taiwanese architecture since the arrival of Chinese immigrants from the

southeastern provinces of mainland China centuries ago. With them, architectural

influences from their hometowns laid down the foundations of modern Taiwanese

architecture. On the grounds of geographical and climatic circumstances, the passing

of time has given rise to styles of architectonics that are distinct from their Chinese

origins.

The Chinese philosophy of the Doctrine of the Mean (中庸之道 ZhongYong ) is

both a philosophy of life and a philosophy of architecture. A doctrine of Confucianism, it

acts as a guide to perfect onesel f, to maintain balance and harmony, achieving a state

of constant equilibrium. The word Zhong itself stands for balance and symmetry. More

often than not, traditional Taiwanese buildings were all symmetrical in nature, with the

axis of symmetry located vertically along the central line; where it is considered the

family space with the highest hierarchy. Owing to that fact, main spaces in the structure

lies on the axis of symmetry while secondary spaces spreads out to either sides.

Traditionally, Taiwanese dwellings were made up of main and secondary

structures. The mains were situated to the axis of symmetry, while the secondaries

were parallel. All of the followed spaces would develop through the central hall, with the

hall being the heart of the house. In general, every room in a main building would be

directly or indirectly connected to the central room, through an adjoining room.

The Taiwanese vernacular style is distinguished in theory, by the structures

enclosing the yard, as opposed to western housings; in which the yards encloses the

buildings. An important feature of Taiwanese courtyard housing has always been the

importance of how the secondary buildings were connected to the main building.

Traditionally, there were special constraints and taboos surrounding the nature of the

joints. These structures typically expanded horizontally, increasing in size and adding

wings as the families residing grew, in lieu of constructing upwards. Figure 1 (Kwan,

1989) demonstrates the layouts for Taiwanese traditional dwellings, appearing that

living quarters were typically developed through the repetition of massing elements.



Figure 1 Plans of Taiwanese traditional dwellings

(Source: Kwan, 1989)

Vernacular housings may have more than one main building, and as a rule,

the height of the dwellings would never exceed the height, while the depth stands at

approximately 1.3 times the height. Although there are rules to construction, a

distinguishing difference between Taiwanese architecture and its root of Chinese

architecture is that the Taiwanese style is of a freer unbounded construction system.

Accounted for by the fact that Taiwanese traditional architecture is a form of immigrant

architecture, much of the changed applied to construction techniques and materials. To

adapt to modern day considerations, it would be later observed in Spring House that

despite adopting a courtyard housing ideology, the structure develops vertically to

achieve effective space solutions in a situation where empty land is limited.



3.0 Vernacular Forms Preserved in Spring House

Within Spring House, Tainan, the client proposed to preserve the materiality of

everything in the house, to expose the initial appearance of them without any

decoration and ornamentation. With the belief to maintain everything to its originality,

her idea have transformed and showed in the Spring House by the spatial planning,

decoration and materials used.

The half of the land was originally a traditional courtyard house, and

surrounded by two roads, and now the Spring House is facing and surrounded by the

courtyard house. So the design of Spring House has taken the site context into

consideration and finally the style of the Spring House has keep to be a courtyard

house like the neighboring houses. The spatial planning of traditional courtyard house

is based on social hierarchy and geometry principles and contain a clearly defined

hierarchy of spatial transition from public space to private space that the modern

housing lack. Spring House has divide the spatial layout into two, building A and

building B to separate the different use of space. Building A serves as a private living

space and building B is for the visitor. This showed that Spring House not only keep the

building style as a courtyard house but also have the spatial transition like what the

traditional courtyard house has. This design also respond to the idea of the owner to

keep thing to it originality and she did to keep the Spring House as a courtyard house

design not only to respond to the site context but the originally land of the Spring

House was a traditional courtyard house too.

Figure 2 Steel structural frame exposed with brickworks

(Source: ArchDaily, 2016)



Figure 3 Taiwanese traditional courtyard dwellings with exposed brickwork and cement roof tiles

Spring House also has followed the traditional architecture style that

combined wood structure with load bearing brick structure but transform to the use of

modern steel structure with load bearing brick structure. From building elevations steel

framing with brick walls can be observed as well as unfinished materials applied on the

exterior walls. This allows for the original appearance of the materials to show through,

achieving a seamless combination of traditional and modern materials. Traditionally,

courtyard housings are constructed with wooden structures. In Spring House, replaced

with modern steel structure to provide for increased strength and durability. During

which, the use of brickworks have been conserved to respond to the Taiwan traditional

building style of brick structures completed with cement roof tiles.

Figure 2 Traditional courtyard housing layout



Figure 3 Layout of Spring House, Tainan


4.0 Design Considerations of Spring House

Sitting in the outskirts of urban city Tainan, Guiren was originally an

agricultural based settlement with many existing local industrial factories emerging over

the evolution of architecture timeline in Taiwan. With the completion of constructing

high speed railway, the area has increased the sense of juxtaposing with old and new,

culture and technology. Also, in terms of intangible things like quiet and slow paced

living environment. The contradiction characteristics and qualities in the presence of

the area create a unique local context.

Hence, the client intends to construct her house by following the

understanding of global climate which constantly changing during time to time. Also,

the effect of 311 earthquake event occurred in Japan. In addition, she requests at the

outset with the idea of self-supply, reusing the rainwater and the solar energy as well

as other types of disaster prevention measures in term of architecture strategy. The

architects attempt to follow her extraordinary personality by indicating in the spatial

layout, site considerations to respond to such environment with design strategy and

also the materiality used in the building.



The architects followed the example of Taiwan’s traditional architecture that

incorporate with different materials such as wood structure and load bearing brick

structure as well as combining them into a modern steel structure with brick and timber.

Utilising this combination to produce an uncommon local architecture style whereby

creating the symbol of Janus characteristics of the environment on others. By

responding to the design concept, they emphasize on three main points which are

seismic prevention, rainwater storage as well as solar power generation. They respond

to the site context which try to utilize roofs, windows, doors and other architectural

elements to arrange them in specific manner for instance vertical placement or

horizontal to fully utilize the natural ventilation and illumination according to the hot

summer in southern Taiwan. Tainan has the longer summer period among the four

seasons. Hence, the design is mostly focus on the summer feature and utilize the

natural sunlight which generates solar power in order to save the energy usage in the

building. Moreover, the roof angle is designed in a manner to maximise the solar power

generation efficiency. Furthermore, the centre-courtyard is designed for water storage

purpose, the client refuses the idea of putting fencing surround the building which will

create the sense of isolation from the surrounding buildings. The client insists to blend

in into the neighbouring houses and environment in order to indicate unity and

harmony.

The emphasis is placed on the interior and exterior spaces in order ‘to

interpret the owner’s living characteristics by the spatial layout’ and ‘to build an

extraordinary architectural form’ by using ordinary materials.’ The architects initially use

two squares as a main structure idea. Then, by superimposing them to form a patio in

the centre. The two squares are being segregated into building A and building B. Also,

they utilize the least living space of single dweller as the design focus. Hence, they

separating two different living spaces which are public and private area in order to

address the spatial characteristics of solo living. The building A located in northeast

corner serves a private living space for dweller. It is a three-floor mass. The building B

is on the other two floor square shape mass. It serves the purpose as for friends to visit

and family use.



Figure 4 Ground, First Floor and Roof plans of Spring House



Personal living space on the third floor consists basic living spaces such as

toilet and bedroom. Building B consists of reading and entertainment spaces on the

second floor and first floor which is not being used when there are no visitors or family

in this house.

By expressing the relationship between the client’s and visitor’s living space

through spatial orders. The architects attempt to purify the spatial layout by segregating

what is need and what is not needed when the owner is alone in the house, Therefore,

to main the privacy of dweller’s personal living, the bedroom is situated in the third floor

of building A. It links to building B only through the north patio walkway.

Other than the residential and spatial functions, the architects even try to

express a few messages through construction method and design. First and foremost,

to illuminate the clear appearance of the architectural skeletal, and also to highlight the

characteristic of the material. There is nearly no decorating material on the structure

indoor, the ceiling is omitted, with the entire circulation, the piping system and pipelines

are being exposed without hiding them. This improves the visual aesthetic of interior

structure while at the same time this original idea makes a great convenience of

replacement and maintenance of the house. Besides that, they lower and mosaic all

the structural floors into steel frame. The outcome of this approach is that the exterior is

totally a presentation of pure structure and also shown as a modern architecture.

Interior also utilize the steel beams to form a geometric pattern with timber flooring and

hence become the significant feature of second and third floor. There is also a

secondary structure which is constructed by square shape steel pipe and some sealing

details in the steel construction system. The bricks are combined with other materials

such as steel, timber and mosaic. It is used to achieved mechanical continuity of

structure system and also to create the sense of dramatic lightness to achieve the

effect by using heavy material such as bricks.



5.0 Local Contextual Understanding

Objectively, the spring house design has taken consideration of the

neighbouring building style into concern, considering their intentions were not to stand

out for a residential home. It maintain its status of a vernacular courtyard house

system, but had a vertical development to increase its space which is possible due to

modern technology. To have modern integration but still maintain its local original

material used, it has partial brick with steel panels used in its facade to ensure its visual

malleability in its neighbouring area.

Figure 5 Far right is the spring house being constructed, and the views and neighbouring context in a micro scale.

Architecture uniformity holds an ability that creates harmony through unity,

much of this ability relies on the concepts or definitions of equilibrium or equipoise,

assimilation what this does within Tainan. Architectural uniformity can be identified in

relation to local and neighboring styles, by analyzing and understanding the roots of its

core. It is known that is of an oriental, essence comprehensive of tradition however It

has undergone evolution, the whole site and neighboring site, to understand this

evolution is the key. And by understanding this evolution then can we begin to identify

the components of architectural uniformity in the district.



Figure 6 Majority of the residential forms take up this style of 2 to 3 storeys for earthquake precautions.

(Source: Google Earth, 2014)

In modern urban contexts, there are many obstacles an architect must face to

accomplish his/her intentions when designing based on the landform. The architect

responsible for the Spring House intended the building to maintain a distinctive local

architectural character but also allow a statement of change and it’s compatibility of

fusing modern with traditional whilst still enjoying both advantages presented

accordingly.

Figure 7 Macro Site Plan surrounding Spring House




In the district of Guinan in Taiwan where the Spring House is located, there is

an apparent consistency in single storey styled vernacular courtyard houses. The

architectural lineage of this houses can be traced back as far as the Southern Chinese

courtyard houses which maintain a sense of hierarchy in their building, in another term,

there is prioritized spaces within the building accordance to importance. Most of this

importance is or was derived based on the class system that originated in China. This

system distinguished the particular types of housing in a particular area. The variety of

the surrounding courtyard houses which defers in covered as well as opened areas can

also help illustrate the residential needs of supplying to their families difference in

sizes.

However in relevance to the Spring House, the characteristics of a vernacular

courtyard spatial layout has been redesign to fit a more modern criteria. The compact

urban composition with a limited number of storeys helps in defining open spaces and

ensuring privacy to semi-public and private areas in the building. As illustrated, the

building can be seen separated into two parts in wishes of the user, one for the user to

address guest when they visit, and the other is a complete private area for the user to

enjoy when she retreats to the countryside. Furthermore one of the obvious elements is

the general elements of the the buildings being bilaterally symmetrical, and using the

axis of symmetry along the main hall(sacred space). Thus using this as an axis to

create secondary spaces around its context. This was moderately evident in Taian, as

it being an agricultural area, hence most of the form are more dated and have the

same tinge of vernacular uniformity.

The courtyard dwellings that was adopted into Taiwan when the Southern

Chinese community immigrated over, was structured heavily on the belief of Feng Shui.

Feng Shui is the principle of harmonizing people with their environment which in turn

ensure prosperity in traditional Chinese belief. Hence, the idea of having elements of

nature penetrate into the owner's housing would harmonize the dwellers with nature

and came forth a structure like the vernacular courtyard house. In a more practical

perspective, this essentially allowed the house to be supplied with natural light and

ventilation, thereby it reduces the amount of energy used compared to non-courtyard

typologies.



Figure 8 A traditional Chinese courtyard house, constructed around symmetry and an axis.

This relatable spatial layout from traditional Chinese layouts is visible in Spring

House through its historical, cultural and social connections that it was structured from.

The front or first hall, most traditional Chinese houses have space that accommodates

visitation and in many cases it is the first introduced space in its layout. The courtyard,

this is the space that makes this typology unique and it also acts as a buffer zone or

transition area to the more private areas of the building. The living quarter, here is

where the rooms for the family is located and has a prioritized arrangements that it

follows. One of this arrangements are the unmarried daughters room, just like in most

case, this is structured accordingly due to belief of helping women get married in Feng

Shui.

Figure 9 Grouping of courtyard houses isn’t as abundant in Taiwan



The Spring House also adopts this traits, it has a front where the user

welcomes guest which is separated away from the private areas with an inner

courtyard and is superimposed to separates the two spaces. The rooms are then

layered vertically instead of horizontally like most Chinese vernacular courtyard

houses, this is due to its lack of space and the architect’s way to maximise space in the

design.

Taiwanese architecture has branched out from Chinese architecture, not in a large way

but more specifically due to its materiality, orientation to geographic and climatic

locations.

The spring house being surrounded by modular forms consisting of two to three storeys

is based around practicality. Due to the regular earthquakes that occur, the ‘lower’ and

more ‘flat’ approach of residential, commercial and economical construction is the

solution as there lower chances of a two to three storey to be affected by the forces of

an earthquake as compared to a taller building, however building materials and

characteristics come into play, for instance, the spring house uses steel beams, and

load bearing brick walls to give the structure its rigidity in comparison, much of the

other neighbouring forms, are more dependant on the use or reinforced concrete.

All in all, majority of the concepts, form and architecture of the Spring House, has not

been derived directly or entirely from modern day Taiwan architectural forms,

especially locally. However, the dating back to its roots and adaptation to the site

context is what made the Spring House a pinnacle of balance achieving, equilibrium in

majority of its considering factors, such as climate, modern technology, form and

design as well as vernacular blending .



6.0 Taiwanese Bioclimatic Architecture

After a mid-strength seismic event took the life of 116 people in February 2016

dued to the collapse of an apartment tower, a wide ranging examination of earthquake

preparedness was carried out by the Taiwanese government; amongst which are the

possibility of risks because of lax or inconsistent code enforcement. Results has shown

that much of the cities and counties are highly vulnerable to structural collapse during

an earthquake, including Tainan. The seismic code enforcements have been

strengthened to that of US levels in 1999 after the occurrence of the worst seismic

event to hit Taiwan. In Tainan, the city worst hit by the recent quake, 86 unsafe

buildings have been discovered by inspectors since February. Prompting the rise of

new modern technology, this concern reflects that of much of the Taiwanese people,

resulting in an increase demand for architecture designed for seismic design, and in

whole, self sustainability.

Since the importance of global environmental protection was raised at the

Earth summit 1992, pursuing sustainable development has become the focal

worldwide. Experiencing various severe natural disasters during the past decade, the

people of Taiwan realised that sustainability should be one of the most urgent issues

for our living environment. According to a 2014 and 2015 USGBC study, Taiwan was

placed in fifth and seventh place respectively; among the top 10 countries outside the

United States for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)

accreditation.

Sustainability as a whole is defined as carrying out developments that meets

the present environmental interest, without jeopardizing the ability for future

generations to meet their individual needs. Sustainable development spans an

abundant areas, including indoor environmental quality, recycling, building design and

emission to name a few, perhaps the easiest fields to identify would be waste

reduction, energy efficiency, and water consumption.

The island of Taiwan is geographically located at a site with abundant

rainfall but limited water resources. Furthermore, it is highly exposed to seismic events

and typhoons year round. As a result, seismic preventions and bioclimatic designs has

been a route taken by an increased amount of architectural designs. Vernacular

housings have been recognised as a way to create comfortable environments with

limited energy use. Generally containing an open courtyard surrounded by facades,



rooms and walls, the spatial layout provides for private secluded yet open space that

acts as a source for natural sunlight, ventilation, and heat. Aside from Spring House,

Courtyard House by Dotze Innovations Studio illustrates traditional courtyard housing

in a new light.

6.1 Courtyard House, Dotze Innovations Studio

Figure 10 Floor plan of Courtyard House, Taiwan

(Source: Designboom, 2016)

The result of Dotze’s design is a structure with shared common areas with

individual living units, separated by light wells and connected by a looped corridor. Sky

voids has been placed on each corner of the building to allow natural lighting and

ventilation to penetrate through the structure - acting as small courtyards. While Spring

House pushes natural ventilation through the use of its courtyard as an airwell to

achieve stack ventilation, Courtyard House has each bedroom equipped with

ventilation towers on the ceiling, as well as water feature located at the entrance to cool

down prevailing air before it enters the building spaces.



Figure 11 Spatial design diagrams of Courtyard House, Taiwan

(Source: Designboom, 2016)

6.2 Beitou National Library, Bio-Architecture Formosana

Locally, comprehensive advancement using simplicity techniques have been

implemented to sustainable design for over a decade. The Beitou National Library is

another great example. Situated in Beitou Park in the Beitou Hot Spring area, it is the

first green library to open in Taiwan in 2006. Surrounded by nature, its eco friendly

features reflects its surrounding context, making the architecture one of the most

energy efficient structures in East Asia.

Figure 12 Steel and timber structure shown on Beitou Library

(Source: Bio-Architecture Formosana, 2003)



Constructed of steel and natural woods, the architects opted for treating the

building timber with wood oils rather than chemical preservatives for protection against

parasites. Through the use of timber structure, the choice of materials are sourced from

managed forests rather than primary or rainforests. Interior spaces are lined with low

levels bookshelves to prevent blocking sunlight and cross ventilation. Similarly to the

function of a courtyard to provide for sunlight, Beitou National Library has been

equipped with a central atrium with large scale windows in order to substitute artificial

lighting. The windows open to take advantage of the park’s natural breeze, which

creates a draft that circulates air and cuts down the need for air conditioning in the

summer.

The architectural metaphor of a tree house is carried upwards to the library’s

green roof, which has been divided into two zones. One, containing solar photovoltaic

cells that converts sunlight and generates up to 16,000 watts of electricity. The other,

supports a sloping lawn and a variety of plants while 20 centimeters of soil has been

laid to provide thermal insulation against the cold in winter and the sun in the summer.

It also acts as a sluice for rainwater, recycled for use in restrooms and watering

systems. The effectiveness of the structure continues to be the recipient of numerous

awards since its establishment.

Figure 13 Beitou Library’s roof equipped with solar panels and soil thermal insulation

(Source: Asia Green Buildings, 2015)



7.0 Self Sustainability Technology Adopted by Spring House

The objective for carrying out the study of the presence of bioclimatic

architecture in Spring House in Tainan is to introduce new steps in creating better

architecture through the use of traditional vernacular architecture while incorporating

the use of modern technological advancements for the purpose of promoting

self-sustainability in preparation for unseen natural disasters.It is previously mentioned

that the building typology of Spring House saves energy by supplying natural light and

ventilation on its own. However, due to modern advancements in technology we are

now not only limited traditional passive design such as courtyards and experimenting

on heat gain of building materials to stand out as bioclimatic architecture but also apply

sustainable systems such as solar power and rainwater collection.

The client also expressed the desire for a self-sufficient, disaster ready home

in fears of climate change and also high seismic activity. Furthermore, Taiwan is no

stranger to natural catastrophes such as typhoons, floods and earthquakes as it is

located at a high risk area for natural disaster in the world. In recent history, Taiwan

has been affected by multiple events of natural disasters such as earthquakes,

typhoons and floods that can piled up a death toll that exceeds hundreds of casualties

in total. Japan 311 seismic events that convinced the client to request at the outset with

the idea of self-supply, rainwater reuse and other types of disaster prevention

architecture strategies.

In recent years, the country of Taiwan has been affected by numerous

earthquakes that have caused major casualties. In light of this, the client proposed that

the house should have a disaster prevention strategy regarding unpredictable seismic

disasters. In response, the architects designed a structural system that consists of

modern steel frame structural beams that incorporates a structural load bearing brick

wall that was often used in the construction of traditional Taiwanese courtyard house

architecture. The structure was thoroughly tested to have the ability to withstand high

seismic activity.



Figure 14 Rates of Seismic activities in East asian countries

(Source: Swiss Seismological Service)

Below are images of the load bearing structure from the façade and the

interior. Besides providing structural support the beams and bricks also provide a

certain aesthetic value which ties back to the concept of the building.

Figure 15 Load bearing structures pictured in the interior and exterior of Spring House (Source: ArchDaily, 2016)

Besides disaster prevention through structural stability, the technology of solar

energy systems were also integrated into this design. Therefore to ensure a sufficient

electrical energy supply during power outages as well as lowering electrical power

costs, solar panels were installed on the roof of the house. Like traditional Taiwanese

courtyard housing, the roof on Spring House was tilted. However, instead of the typical

30 to 40 degrees pitch, the roof angle was tilted accordingly in order to maximise solar

power exposure and generation throughout the year.



Figure 16 Modern solar roof panels Figure 17 Model perspective of Spring House (Source: Inhabitat, 2014)

(Source: Architizer, 2016)

As another step into self-sustainability, rainwater harvesting systems were

also applied amongst other green techniques. The courtyard located in the centre of

the structure has been equipped with a water feature, allowing it to harvest rainwater

and store for future use, as well as act as an air well that cools down passing air. The

roof was also designed to facilitate rainwater runoff to ensure its successful channelling

from the gutters into the storage tanks to be used as greywater for washrooms and

watering systems.

Figure 18 Spring House: Roof solar exposure and the transfer of rainwater

from the gutters to water storage tanks

At the end of the day, it can be concluded that the Spring House is successful

in using a combination of the vernacular architecture in Taiwan and modern

technological advancements in a step towards achieving bioclimatic architecture.



8.0 Conclusion

In a newly industrialized Taiwan, sustainability on architecture and spatial

planning is vital. While the challenges towards conservation, urban studies and

planning for natural disasters is unavoidable, through careful consideration on the

human impact on nature, there are significant benefits of bioclimatic architecture. Even

though sustainable architecture typically costs 10 to 20 percent more to build, the

amount of energy it conserves far exceeds the initial cost; typically having a payback

period of around two years.

Through new building technology and breakthroughs, it is notable to recognise

the importance of history and cultural conservations. Spring House is an evident

example of the possibility of achieving both culture and technology coherence, setting

an example for future architecture dwellings in the region.



9.0 References

Kwan, H. S. (1989). Spatial Concepts Shown in the Traditional Houses of Taipei. Habitations,

Society, and Culture, 27-64.

Bristow, M.4. (2010). Planning in Taiwan: Spatial planning in the twenty-first century. London:

Routledge.

Chiou, S. C., & Krishnamurti, R. (1995). The fortunate dimensions of Taiwanese traditional

architecture (Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University, 1995). Environment and Planning B: Planning

and Design, 22, 547-562.

Chiou, S. C., & Krishnamurti, R. (1995). The grammar of Taiwanese traditional vernacular

dwellings (Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University, 1995). Environment and Planning B: Planning and

Design, 22, 689-720.

Liu, Y. (2006). Glocalization: New architecture in Taiwan, 2000-2005. Livonia, MI: First Page

Publications.

Edwards, B. (2006). Courtyard housing (1st ed.). Abingdon [England]: Taylor & Francis.

Zhang, D., & Brookes, O. (2010). Courtyard housing and cultural sustainability: Theory, practice,

and product . Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing Company.

Spring House / W L A. (2016). Retrieved November 20, 2016, from

http://www.archdaily.com/789515/spring-house-w-l-a

Almusaed, A. (2011). Biophilic and bioclimatic architecture: Analytical therapy for the next

generation of passive sustainable architecture. London: Springer.

Solar-powered home in Tainan puts a modern twist on the traditional courtyard house. (n.d.).

Retrieved November 28, 2016, from

http://inhabitat.com/solar-powered-home-in-tainan-puts-a-modern-twist-on-the-traditional-courtyard

-house/spring-house-by-w-l-a-12/

Mak, M. Y., Sun, J., & Chen, F. Y. (2015). Simplicity of Sustainability: A Taiwanese Approach

(Thesis). The University of Newcastle, National Chengchi University.


Asian architecture paper

Education