| dc.description.abstract | Manufacturing industries are on the decline in Taiwan, leaving many of the island’s
corrugated metal warehouses and factories at the risk of being replaced by more
profitable high-rise towers. The result is a gentrification of neighbourhoods, the
consolidation of capital, and the exacerbation of inequality between working classes.
Additionally, in the context of Taiwan’s economically sustained status quo, the spaces
of production play a critical role in manifesting the autonomy and identity of the
island. The corrugated metal shed, as an architectural typology, has not only facilitated
Taiwan’s economic transformation but, through its widespread construction, it has
since become an integral part of the island’s urban and rural landscapes. It is in this
context that this thesis seeks to re-imagine our current modes of land speculation and
asks: how should the redevelopment of corrugated metal sheds in Taiwan respond
not only to changing economic conditions but also vernacular-sociocultural practices
and sustainable socio-political objectives?
Building on an existing conversation between the global and the local within
architectural discourse today, the research references key political and urban theory
texts, and use mapping, drawing, modelling, and photographs to investigate the role
of architecture as both the agent of a globalized economy and the locus of local
identities. In the design work, the thesis focuses on an incremental process of urban
redevelopment to propose a new type of industrial district – an Interface City. The
proposal re-imagines the site of Wenzhai Zun, located on the outskirts of Taipei, into
an intersection point between global economic city-regions, between domestic and
productive life, between industrial and post-industrial work, and between vernacular
built environments and universal building types. The aim of the Interface City is to
create not only a viable economy but also a more equitable society. Ultimately, the
objective of this thesis is to use the context of Taiwan as a testing ground for new
design processes and solutions in the face of deindustrializing cities around the world
today. | en |
