Conservation a tool for
Urban Regeneration

Heritage Conservation in Tainan

Submitted By:
ANIQA SOUD
NISHANT BHATEJA
SABREENA ASHRAF
SUDHAKAR CHAUDHARY
Clockwise from top: Downtown Tainan, Statue of Yoichi
Hatta, THSR Tainan Station , Dan zai noodles, Fort Provintia,
Beehive firework in Yanshui.

• Tainan is located in the south western part of Taiwan and in the north of Kaohsiung
City.
• Being the fourth largest city in Taiwan,
Tainan has an area of about 174 square kilometer with population of 750,000.
• It is one of Taiwan's cultural capitals, for its rich folk cultures including the famous local snack food, extensively preserved
Taoist rites and other living local traditions.

Country Taiwan Map

Tainan city Map

Overview of Fort Zeelandia in Tainan,
Taiwan, painted around 1635

HISTORY

Tainan gateway to the sea during
Qing Dynasty

• Tainan is the island’s oldest city which was settled in 1590, which was once under
Dutch colonial rule from 1624 to 1661.
• It became an ancient capital of Taiwan after
Cheng Cheng-kung took over the island from Dutch.
• In 1684, the Qing Empire conquered Taiwan
• After 100 years, the Qing dynasty was defeated by Japan and Tainan was ceded to
Japan

Heritage Conservation in Tainan
 Tainan has a long historical development and thus there is a range of heritage found in the city including temples, forts, government office building and court.

Fort Provintia

 By the end of 2004, there were over 100 places of designated historical relics in
Tainan under to the Cultural Property
Preservation Law

Tainan District Court

 including 7 Grade I, 8 Grade II, 38 Grade
III and 2 National relics, 50 County (City) relics and 1 Historic relic

 Beside the statutory designated built heritage, there are some historic buildings of historic, social and cultural significance, such as
Koxinga’s Shrine, while on the other hand, some old buildings are adaptively re-used, for instance for operating traditional tantze noodle.

National Museum of
Taiwan History

Taiwan Confucian Temple

Current Heritage in Tainan
Classification

No. of Heritage

Examples

Grade I

7

Tainan Confucius Temple

Grade II

8

Tainan District Court

Grade III

38

Anping Fortress

National Relic

2

Old Tainan Meteorological
Station

Provincial (Municipal) Relic

0

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County (City) Relic

50

Old Tainan Prefecture Hall

Source: Adapted from Tainan City Government, 2004

Institutional and Administration Framework

Heritage conservation in Tainan falls into the scope of work of the Cultural Affairs
Bureau.
Under the Bureau, there are five Divisions, including the Cultural policy Division, the Cultural property Division, the Cultural Development Division, the Historic
Sites Preservation Division and the Museum Division.
Built heritage is defined as part of cultural properties, while the Cultural Policy
Division constitutes cultural policy and rules which covers heritage conservation policy in Tainan, the Historic Sites Preservation Division is the major section responsible for executing conservation works, including (Cultural Affairs
Bureau, Tainan, 2005b):
Like Kaohsiung, Tainan abides by the Cultural Property Preservation Law as well as its enforcement rules. The Tainan City Government has also established a heritage examination committee and a set of guideline for the work of the committee. Specific Focuses
Area Based Conservation

Heritage Conservation and Provision of Open Space
Heritage conservation in Tainan is mainly implemented by an area-based approach, instead of performing conservation of individual historical building or heritage. Tainan City Government has integrated heritage conservation with the provision of open space or parks in the city. Open space or parks are found adjoining locations of heritage, for instance, Anping Fort, Eternal
Golden Castle and Confucian Temple.

Locations of heritage in Tainan are mostly found in the city Centre. The city centre is surrounded by traffic circles (East Gate Traffic Circle,Siao-Si-Men and Si-Men Traffic Circle).
Greening and open space are found with these traffic circles and in the middle of the city centre, there is a major traffic circle with the provision of a park (Tang-de-jhang Commemoration Park)
.
Radial road network is designed for linking the major and the surrounding traffic circles (Tainan
City Government, 2005a) and therefore, an urban fabric with the pattern like ‘emerald necklace’ is formed.
Different traffic circles are connected and one may say that heritage in the city centre are connected with each other by ‘emerald necklace’.

Cultural Parks

 Tainan City Government has adopted the concept of ‘Cultural Park’ for heritage conservation.  Under this concept, heritage, historical buildings and old streets are integrated with restaurants, souvenir shops and cultural activities into a historic region (Cultural Affairs
Bureau, 2005c).
 There are 3 conceptual principles and one of them is urban fabric.
 The unique historical character of the city should be strengthened and urban fabric and spatial pattern should be protected.
 Besides, visual corridors of heritage should be protected. The third principle is sustainable development.
 Heritage and historical buildings should be conserved and revitalized. Besides, the surrounding environment of the heritage should also be regenerated and revitalized.
 Sustainable heritage conservation can also be achieved by allowing public participation during the process as well as the mode of operation of ‘build, operate and transfer’

 There are 3 cultural parks in the city and they are, Confucian Temple Park, Chihkan Park and Anping Park.
 Regarding Confucian Temple Park, heritage conservation of the Confucian temple is integrated with the organization of art and cultural activities such as exhibition of paintings.  The government also repaved the pedestrian pathways and conducted improvement work of lighting, landscaping and greening in the cultural park.
 On the other hand, in Chihkan Park, besides the conservation of Chikan Tower, areas nearby the tower are revitalized by the regeneration of the old streets and business activities like restaurants and shops.
 The local community is involved in the conservation and regeneration work.
 Concerning Anping Park, there is public-private partnership in the conservation of different heritage. Different heritage are revitalized by the existence of cafes, open space, museums as well as cultural activities in nearby areas.
 On the whole, there is the emphasis of the integration of heritage conservation and urban revitalization for the concept of cultural park.

Cultural Zones

 Tainan City Government has established 6 cultural zones for the implementation of comprehensive heritage conservation.
 Heritage conservation is incorporated with urban regeneration as well as revitalization.
 They are Chihkan Cultural Zone, Confucian Temple Cultural Zone, National Anping Harbour
Historic Park, Taijian Ecological & Cultural Zone,Minsheng Green Park Cultural Zone and
Old Five Channels Cultural Zone.
 It is noticeable that the heritage conservation and urban revitalization projects in Old Five
Channels Cultural Zone have resulted in fruitful outcomes.

 Old Five Channels Cultural Zone is the region where prosperous trading activities were found in the past and the development of the region marked a golden page in the history of
Tainan.
 One may discover the existence of characters and features of old streets nowadays.
 In the past 10 years, the construction of Hai An Road led to destruction of buildings as well as urban fabric in the area. Nevertheless, after the start of the usage of the road, the region has been revitalized.
 Hai An Road has become an art street with cafes and restaurants.

 On the other hand, local communities in the region have carried out heritage revitalization for preserving local culture.
 They aim at revitalizing the local culture, promoting cultural industries by engaging in the revitalization process.
 These are fulfilled by the establishment of 5 different types of centers in the region, including life culture centre, historical information centre, healthy life centre, community learning centre and traditional art centre (Cultural Affairs Bureau, 2004).
 The establishment of the cultural zone facilitates the integration of heritage conservation and urban revitalization.

Urban Planning and Heritage Conservation: The An-Pin Canal
• The improvement work of the An-Pin Canal.
• The project includes re-pavement of pedestrian pathways, greening of promenade and improvement of lighting can facilitate the development of National Anping Harbour
Historic Park (Tainan City Government, 2005b)
NGOs and Public Participation
• The main objective of the foundation is to promote the conservation and adaptive re-use of the cultural properties or heritage (FHCCR, 2005).
• The local people in the region want to preserve the intangible cultural heritage within the district. • At the very beginning, the level of community participation was very low. However, in course of time it is increasing gradually. Both tangible and intangible and also local cultural heritage are focused here.
• For encouraging the community participation, a ceremony was held to gather local people to let them know the redevelopment of the area. Regular meetings were held and workshops were organized to educate the people and stimulate their awareness on heritage sites and values. One of the public participation programs is to invite architects to work as volunteers for proposing community projects, for which the government will provide funding. ACTIVITY AROUND THE CITY CENTRE
Tainan City Government has adopted the concept of ‘Cultural Park’ for heritage conservation.
Under this concept, heritage, historical buildings and old streets are integrated with restaurants, souvenir shops and cultural activities into a historic region (Cultural Affairs Bureau, 2005c). There are 3 conceptual principles and one of them is urban fabric. The unique historical character of the city should be strengthened and urban fabric and spatial pattern should be protected. Besides, visual corridors of heritage should be protected. The third principle is sustainable development. Heritage and historical buildings should be conserved and revitalized. Besides, the surrounding environment of the heritage should also be regenerated and revitalized.
RESIDENCE AROUND THE CITY CENTRE
There are some local communities living along the city centre area which have participated in the city.
They have carried out heritage revitalization forpreserving local culture. They aim at revitalizing the local culture, promoting cultural industries by engaging in the revitalization process.

The practice of conservation concept into urban regeneration • Main historical Core. The conservation and revitalization of the entire spatial and living culture and the reconstruction of local historical spatial features are the urgent assignment to conserve local characteristics. Since, the main historical core is both early development area and highly economic developed area; the large scale economic development should channelize to the east, the main development axis, and to further excecute regeneration to the entire area by appropriate modernization and conservation to revitalize this area.
• Sub historical Core and local village center.
Except for the main historical core, cultural heritages are dispersed in Tainan city, including historical and industrial relics, historical streets and traditional village in rural area. The conservation and new use to the relics need a fully plan. Meanwhile, the conservation of traditional village and local living feature are both essential while proceeding regeneration in these kinds of area. DURING EARTHQUAKES:
Not much damage is reported during the earthquakes in taiwan and hence in tainan.
The most major earthquake was in 1946:
According to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau, there were 74 people killed by the quake, with 200 people seriously injured and 274 lightly injured. 1,971 dwellings were completely destroyed, while a further 2,084 dwellings were partially destroyed.
Soil liquefaction and sand boils were observed in central Tainan County, and there was widespread damage to railways, roads, farmland, water pipes and bridges. As the disaster came just a year into the new Kuomintang rule in Taiwan, it served as a test for the new government. It was the most serious earthquake in Tainan County in 84 years
GOVERNMENT:
Taiwan comes under the republic of china and forms a special municipality, which is the highest level of administration in taiwan and is head by the mayor of the state which is directly elected by the citizens for a term of four years.

HISTORY OF URBAN TRANSFORMATION:

URBAN TRANSFORMATION UNDER JAPANESE RULE (1895-1945):
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The Japanese reign changed Taiwan’s political as well as social, economic, and cultural environment.
Taiwan's modern planning system was founded by the Japanese during their occupation. The Japanese had experimented and transplanted in Taiwan what they had learned from Europe--techniques of both planning and building control in conjunction with western architectural styles.
The former organic patterns of most towns and settlements were substituted by grid patterns. New plans and building standards were employed to shape the profile of Taiwan's cities.
Planned urban reform took place immediately after Japan took over Taiwan, for the former urban environment with its narrow streets and bad sanitary conditions was considered unhealthy and backward. In
1899 Tainan City’s Urban Planning Board was established for the ‘regularisation’ of Tainan’s urban structure.
The demolition of Tainan’s city wall started since 1907, four years ahead of the enactment of Tainan’s
‘regularisation plan.’ Statutory plan was modified in the following decades, paralleling the gradual demolition of the city wall that continued till 1941.
1929 and 1935 saw respectively the expansion of ‘planned areas’ of the city.

AFTER WORLD WAR II (1945-PRESENT)
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From the late 1950s to 1980, the government successively promoted six Four-Year Economic Development
Plans and one Six-Year Plan.
From 1970 on, a series of ‘grand constructions’ were put forward to support the economic and industrial development. This cast strong impact on Taiwan’s urban development.
It is during this period Taiwan's cities started to experience a drastic change along with the economic ‘take off’.
In late 1950s, many street houses were rebuilt to two to four storeys employing the style of modern architecture and from late 1960s on, major public buildings and big commercial buildings were built creating a new urban scene.
The major roads built or widened within many cities in this period introduced traffic problems and out-ofcontrolled development and destroyed quite a few historic buildings and streets.

They were measures responsive to the need of the growing population, but no urban design considerations were taken into account. In the 1980s and the early 1990s Taiwan’s major cities witnessed a steady growth of the property market that produced a large quantity of housing and office buildings, resulting in serious urban sprawl and the deterioration of townscape and general urban quality.
Tainan did not manage to avoid this adversity.

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SHOPS AND HOUSES IN TAINAN’S STREET
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The majority of Tainan’s historic shop houses continue their traditional use pattern- shops at ground floor or lower levels and residential uses above. A significant amount of traditional businesses are preserved in such streets, for example, shops for traditional biscuits and cakes, sculpture studios, embroidery studios, and food stands. Organic patterned lanes flanked by small scale, irregular developments are behind main shopping streets. Their human scale, irregularity, integrity of secular spaces and neighbourhood spaces etc. form a fabric of valuable townscape

INTEGRATING THE OLD WITH THE NEW:

• Since 2008, FHCCR began to promote the “Old House with New Life” program, through the introduction of cases in re-utilizing the old houses, making the general public to focus on the value that historical space has created, in order to arouse the public concern about the preservation and regeneration of old buildings.
• “old house” refers to a building that has at least 30 years of history, and has been properly preserved and maintained, “New Life” means that the building should be able to meet contemporary requirements to have achieved the positive transformation effects of specific expression of the old and new convergence
In particular, the “Old House with New Life” proposed involves the substantial inclusion of the old house with the local spatial texture. In the past, walls had been used to express the physical boundaries. The scenarios seen within and without the walls were entirely different, while the gates and walls became the areas of the keenest interest. Now, the city is already without walls, but many old buildings that provide distinctive features for identification are still in all the corners around the city, waiting to play the important role of being identified as the city characteristics.