A critical commentary:
Who lives who dies who tells the matrix
The research investigates this archeological site located at
the heart of the city of Tainan, on which relics of different regimes
superimpose upon each other. This history spans as early as 1620 to as recent
as 1920.
It is historical, with each discovery of the relics marked
upon the timeline of alternating regimes, settlers, and colonizers. From the
aboriginals, to the Dutch international trading fleet, to the Qing dynasty of
China, to the expanding Japanese in the late 19th century, and to
the now Taiwanese governor of R.O.C, traces are left, interacting beyond their
own scope of time.
It is multidimensional. There was the Dutch fortress
protecting the trading town by the bay, the façade typical of 17th
century European military facility sitting atop a plinth. There was the educational
complex adjacent to the then Qing Dynasty administrative center of the island.
The Chinese architectural language of hierarchical typology of roofs could be
found in the still standing structures of Chih-Kan tower and its surrounding
small temples, while the concept of modular spans of units is evident in the
remaining foundation works of the county office uncovered through excavation. There
was the public school established by the then colonial government of militarist
Japan. The design was elevation oriented, typical of that time when
architecture meets the westernization and modernization of Japan started in the
early 19th century. It’s the fusion of western elevation of
proportion acclimated to the aesthetics and climate constraints of Japan and
Taiwan.
Its is forensic. The relics revealed transcends across
multiple spans of historically defined times, thus requires a deep
investigation into former maps and other drawn references for accurate
identification. Theses reference reflects the disposition of its time through
different forms of annotation styles and projection method of drawings. They
also demonstrate cultural differences of recording, designing, tradition and
point of view.
It is tectonic. The tree of tectonic differences and
evolution could be traced along the history of the site. Its was the mass works
of classic European fortress at first, the castle of solid forms that is meant
to be protective and climate resistance. Then it was Qing’s ruling that brought
in Chinese tradition construction of frameworks that forms the collection of
intricate roofscape and courtyards of administrative, educational, and
religious facilities. During the Japanese colonial, the earliest from of reinforced
concrete was introduced, usually with wooden-framed roof seated atop. The Meji
public school was one of those.
It is terrestrial. Since the Dutch fleet landed the shore of
Tainan in 1620, Taiwan has long been part of the world trading system. Tainan
was first the trade town of the Dutch, when the island was first known for deer
skin export. These deer skin was brought from aboriginal hunters at a very low
price, thus generated significant venue. In the earlier times under Qing Dynasty’s
ruling, Taiwan became part of the Chinese domestic supply chain. Tea was one of
the major products. In 1858, Tainan was one of the four ports forced open by
the western countries after the Eight-Nation alliance’s invasion of China,
through which treatise were signed to open up ports for global trade. Tea,
sugar cane and camphor plantation entered and became indispensable for the
global market in the 19th century. After Qing’s major sea battle
lost to Japan, Taiwan, again as part of the treatise, was conceded, and became
one of the first oversea expansion of the then rising militarist Japan.
“Agricultural Taiwan, Industrial Japan” was the major economic strategy.
Taiwan’s agricultural infrastructure was significantly improved, with new dams
and irrigation web paired with strategic planning of plantable lands and times
led to a surge of rice and sugar cane production. Most of these farmlands were
claimed and owned by large Japanese corporate, while behind the huge profit was
intense labor. However, these commercial activities was key to drive the
implementation of the railway coverage of the island, which is still of great
influence nowadays.
It is ecological. The change of hydrological condition around
the site is evident and dramatic throughout these hundreds of years. As early
as 1620s, it was just sitting right at the heart of the bay area. The typology
is more similar to the now city of San Diego, with a long-stretching sand dune
buffering the inner by from the sea, a fabulous setting for the formation of a
international harbor. As time goes, human activities of oyster farming and
natural alluvial forces acted together and gradually transformed the bay area
into a huge, new piece of land. The only trace left nowadays is the canal
running through the city west, which is still few miles away from the site. Nevertheless,
the life of the city still retains its close relation to the mountain and the
sea as the old maps suggested.
It is decolonial. The archeology revealed the site’s
inseparable relation to the history of colonialism upon the island. It was
first the Dutch cooperate, then the two Chinese regimes followed by the
Japanese. They erased and built upon each other, leaving traces that reflects
the times upon architecture. Decolonial efforts happened at every turning point
in the history, adding up to a self-identification solid and intricate, complex
and superimposed. People on this island never concede the right to fight, the
spirit of democracy and the notion of a nation grew at every moment stronger
than ever.
It is intersectional. The ecological, hydrological condition
and geological location lends the site to its terrestrial history that is
written at the locus of global economy, while subject the site to constant
colonial and decolonial activities – shifting of regimes, and the rise of the
people. The tectonic tree is a way of outlining this history, while strongly
informs and manifest cultural differences of spaces that is multidimensional.
The comprehension of intersectional relation require a diligent forensic
investigation that is cross disciplinary integrated.
It is embodied. The scale of the uncovered relics reveals
modules and rhythms of density within this inner-city area. The spatial
perception shifted from a vast, newly-found island at the brim of the west
Pacific Ocean to a more densely populated, cultural dynamic, mingled society of
immigrants and (ex-) colonizers. The architecture that existed formerly on the
site bears more sense of hierarchy comparing to other places in the city. The
program history is of administrative centers and educational facility of
regimes that enforces certain value and ideology upon its people. This was a
place to be questioned and decolonized. It is embodied in the formal language,
spatial tradition, while acting aside with the atmosphere in the society of its
time.
It is technical. The documenting drawings resonate with the
design tradition of the culture architecture is built into. The façade oriented
design of European fortress and the Eclecticism architecture appeared during
the Japanese colonial were both represented in a rather 2-dimentional
projection. The Chinese architecture of modular elevation, hierarchical
roofscape and crafting of courtyards, were, on the other hand represented in a
elevational-planar way of distorted projection that is commonly used in many
early temple and religious facility designs. This method is astonishingly
efficient in conveying the gradual, hierarchical spatial sequence that one
experiences while moving through courtyard after courtyard. (The main drawing
of this compiled research also applied this kind of projection method to
showcase the site on which archeological excavation is in its forensic
progress.)
It is activist. This research intends to suggest a history
that is dynamic and inspiring, in a way that it opens future trajectories and
explorations, that history is not a fixed end and tradition. History is to
activate eruptions and innovations. The site the story of the city that should
be more multi-dimensionally comprehended by its people so to move on and
evolve. So that the bond is not just relics in the museum. This site of
archeological excavation could be far more than it is now.
It is futuristic. At this point we rethink the future of
relics in the contemporary urban environment. There is possibilities of reinterpretation
and re-inhabitation that incorporates a more complicated process of spatial
discovery and experimentation that is more than exhibition and preservation.
The relics are a new form of artificial landscape with inherent sense of scale.
A new common-ground that is free to explore.
