The fusionoftraditionaltaiwanesecourtyarddwellingsandmodernbioclimatictechnology

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
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

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 oneself, 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
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.

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