An Early Survey of the House of Liu in Nei-Pu, Ping-Tung

The contents of the present study focused on an analysis of building type and construction in addition to a general understanding of the spatial organization and the building context of the house In the final conclusion, the House of Liu was established as a masterpiece of the townhouse building type produced in the last transforming phase of vernacular tradition of Taiwan Both traditional and western architectural vocabularies co-existed in its architectural form, within a strictly controlled architectural order, there emerged a vitality resulted from the many changes of daily life which had not yet been stereotyped Henceforth, the western influence continued to increase right up to the introduction of modern building type by the Japanese in the early twentieth century As far as the architectural building type is concerned, the House of Liu in the style of a townhouse represented a fascinating prototype of the typical shop-house in a continuous row which is flooding the streetscape of our cities today.