“It’s a really unique spatial experience, vast and quiet, a type of landscape you do not get to experience very often in Taiwan,” architect Kuo Ying-chao (郭英釗) said, describing the large stretches of coastal wetlands and fish farms which make up Greater Tainan’s Taijiang National Park (台江國家公園). “After all, Taiwan is usually very busy visually; packed with mountains and cities.”
Kuo led his firm, Bio Architecture Formosana, in designing a new visitor’s center for the park. Currently under construction, the center is set for completion next year, and will join other well-known structures by the firm such as the Beitou Public Library and the Taipei Flora Expo Pavilions.
With a village-like complex of buildings perched on stilts above a fish farm, the design represents an architect’s interpretation of the rich natural and cultural resources offered by the park. The use of natural building materials, such as oyster shells and driftwood, add to the project’s local atmosphere.
Photo courtesy of Bio Architecture Formosana
Founded in 2009 in then Tainan City’s Annan District (安南) and Tainan County’s Cigu Township (七股), Taijiang National Park marks a break from traditional attitudes toward wilderness conservation, as it embraces a diverse array of natural, cultural and historical heritage.
While the park boasts a rich ecosystem, including mangrove forests and huge wetlands that host the endangered black-faced spoonbill in winter, traditional industries also play an essential role in the park’s attractions. Visitors can tour the park on rafts made of pipes and see oyster farming in lagoons, as well as milkfish farms in manmade ponds.
The park gained its name from the Taijiang Inland Sea, a bay that used to cover large swaths of coastal Greater Tainan. The area saw the 17th century naval battles between the Ming dynasty loyalist Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), also known as Koxinga (國姓爺), and the Dutch East Indian Company. Following his defeat of the Dutch, Koxinga set up a de facto independent kingdom in Taiwan, paving the way for early waves of Han Chinese immigration.
Kuo, a local from the area, said the omnipresent fish farms played a central role in the local economy, comparing them to rice paddies in agricultural areas.
“Ever since we were kids, fish farms were everywhere. We probably thought fish farms existed since the beginning of time,” Kuo said, adding that since the site of the new visitor’s center used to be a fish farm, he saw no reason to fill it in.
“In order to build a house on a fish farm, we needed to stretch our legs a bit, like the birds do,” he said, referring to the stilts the visitor’s center rests on.
Building the visitor’s center on a fish farm also serves practical reasons, as water vapor from the pond below the building provides a natural cooling effect through specifically designed openings on the floor.
This is in tune with the green architecture approach known as “passive design,” in which natural elements such as sunlight, wind or water are employed to minimalize the consumption of energy, Kuo said.
“We are trying to minimize the use of electric devices such as air conditioners or lighting by harnessing the force of nature instead,” he said.
Designed as a cluster of buildings, Kuo’s team wanted to imitate the ventilation and shade found in the layout of the area’s traditional villages. They managed this by a computer analysis of the orientation of buildings and alley openings in the settlements.
“Settlements are built through a natural, organic process. Houses are built one after the other, while the architects are highly sensitive to natural elements such as wind and sunlight,” Kuo said.
The main challenge in the construction of the visitor’s center was to achieve the accumulated sensibilities of a settlement over a short period of time.
“Computer software can randomly allocate structures, while still adhering to certain rules. Traditional settlements themselves are a combination of random factors and fixed rules,” Kuo said.
A large number of local resources are to be used as building materials for the visitor’s center. Among them are the large number of oyster shells in the area, which have long been considered a nuisance by the oyster farming industry.
Kuo said oyster shells would be spread across roofs providing a natural barrier against heat. By covering roofs with oyster shells and the locally abundant driftwood, Kuo said the visitor’s center hopes to attract more wildlife. Insects and plants can reside amongst the crooks and crevices, potentially turning the center into a hotspot for biodiversity.
“Fish farms and wetlands are drastically different to each other in terms of biodiversity,” Kuo said. “Fish farms are driven by economic concerns. You usually only have one species of fish, while the depth of the water makes it difficult for many birds to reside.”
Wetlands, on the other hand, host a multitude of fauna and flora as they feature a diverse topography, with ponds of varying depths providing shelter to different forms of wildlife, he said.
“We might have different species of fish in our fish farm. Shading from the buildings could also create a sheltered habitat,” Kuo said, seeing the project as an “intervention” geared toward increasing biodiversity. “It’s important that we don’t destroy the local habitat through the construction of a new building, but add to its richness.”
By planning to construct a predominantly white exterior in the shape of a hill, Kuo said the visitor’s center could act as a focal point in the vast landscape.
“Taijiang is for the most part flat and spacious, unlike the mountainous terrains of the majority of the nation’s other national parks. In a sense we are creating a landscape feature, similar to the Sihcao Dajhong Temple (四草大眾廟) nearby, while avoiding being too obtrusive,” Kuo said.
He said that many of the park’s quiet charms lay hidden in the details.
“Jump onto any ridge between the fish farms, and you’ll see a lot of drought-tolerant plants, with tiny flowers blossoming all around you,” he said. “I might only see the surface of it, but it’s really a unique environment for people to admire and learn from.”
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