Indivisual or collective housing building charcteristics

The Orchid House team believes that a long term vision for a city must be built from what’s within.

We carefully select five sites which can critically represent housing development history as well as urban conditions in Taipei.

From west side of Taipei to the east, our sites encompasses those historical houses built during Qing dynasty, which manifested the heyday of all the commercial activities due to the proximity to the main river for transporting goods to those modern housing buildings built during 60’s and 70’s at heart of modern Taipei Of those buildings, modern living referenced from western cities, was originally portrayed through all clear defined building systems and ideal proportion of outdoor and indoor spaces. Most importantly, their scale in relation to urban context. As time progressed, original building structures can no long suffice ever growing city density and changes of population and its associate demographic structure. Fostered by not strictly reinforced covenant and building regulations then, illegal additions beginning to sprawl all over these buildings. As a result of this, both the residents and their living conditions faced critical challenges. Below we identified 5 critical common flaws of buildings located in these representative sites:

1) Dilapidated waterproof on the roof posed potential leaking problems.

2) Newly-added building equipment (i.e. water tank, solar panels, etc) not being integrated aesthetically and functionally to the existing buildings.

3) Illegal room additions to the roof are not built with public safety and durable tectonics.

4) The valuable outdoor spaces on the roof especially for a high-density city were long being deprived.

5) Many dated piping and building electrical systems not being properly laid out and repaired.

In response to five critical issues above, our Orchid House proposal aims to solve all these urgent issues at once with not only what’s being carefully designed in the house but also the outdoor spaces shaped and enclosed by the new structure. We envisage a reclaimed civic space on the roof can offer a valuable social and economic engine to a new Taipei. Collectively, we plan to apply our roof design to all the 5 sites in a phased fashion. By carefully understanding demographics and existing activities within them respectively, the outcome of the Orchid House will not merely a standalone addition to our skyline. They will form into clusters, interdependent social and economic ecosystem not only within but across communities. Most critically, our proposal will become an integral part of the old communities. Finally, they will trigger transformation of old neighborhood to create a unique lifestyle for each one, whereby both newcomers and existing residents can emotionally identify with their own living environment and ultimately a sustainable urban renewal outcome can be arrived.

Vertical Circulation

Within the block, 2 locations are identified to locate elevators and staircase

Pedestrian Circulation

Ximending has several narrow alleys which is good for making a new entrance for the Orchid Cluster

The proposed Orchid House set forth in Architecture section will serve as a prototype.

Based on the available lot sizes and specific building conditions, i.e. the shapes of the roof, the locations of the existing elevator or stairway shafts, mechanical rooms, access to the street level, we will form Orchid House into clusters which are inspired by Taiwanese traditional courtyard style housing setup. With properly designated proportion (50% residential, 25%

open green area, and 25% circulation space) of outdoor spaces relevant to indoor sizes, we believe that newly created common areas will vastly transform mostly isolated and independent city life. This arrangement also speaks to the need of co-working and co-living lifestyle to foster new businesses being materialized.

In the five selected sites, the buildings used to exemplify our Orchid House Cluster and the economic generating concepts are mix-use in type. Strong commercial activities at street level signify the themes that long help the neighborhoods develop their own characteristics. Bringing the new economies and existing commercial activities together would help the newly developed communities at the roof level arrive a self-sufficient status, which would encourage socializing between the old and new residents but also minimize the traveling costs which often seen as an issue in newly developed area in Taipei.

We understand that building hardware such as physical construction for a city is much easier than ensuring the success of complementary commercial activities. By leveraging the economic energies of the existing sites would not only avoid erasing any given characteristics of the areas but also reduce the living expanses of these young professionals.

Stair Core Elevator Core

5F

4F

3F

green pocket

green alley stair core & L unit`s public space

stair core & I unit`s public space outdoor public space 2

outdoor public space 1

Based on the research by Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), Taiwan is ranked 17th the world and ninth in Asia in terms of its carbon footprint. Each person in Taiwan, on average, produce 10.89 tons of carbon emissions a year, which is more than its Japan and South Korea, and daily per capita carbon footprint of 19.6 kg, almost four times the UN recommendation in 2011.

Even though the highest carbon footprint sector is industrial, Taiwanese transport sector contributes its carbon emission by 14% of all. Among this transport sector, the road vehicles including motorcycles, passenger cars and trucks account for approximately 94% of all transport-related carbon dioxide emissions. Vehicle ownership in Taipei shows extremely high growth rate from 1980 to 2000 by 430%

for cars and 173% for motorcycles due to the relatively poor level of service of the bus system. These high number of vehicle bring environmental pollution as well as traffic congestion. The average speed of private cars in Taipei city is about 20 kilometers per hour in peak periods while that of buses is about 10 kilometer per hour. Taipei city needs new transportation system, which contribute less carbon emission and street congestion. NCTU UNICODE propose green e-motor cycle parking system along with the Orchid House ground level for removing street parking and creating more renting e-motor cycle spots in the city.