Transplanting Modernity: On Modern Architecture in Postwar Taiwan

To respond to the questions of Modern Architecture in postwar Taiwan, this paper is based on the research of history. The approach is reconstructed for re-contextualizing the concept of “architecture is the product of specific society”. Reconsidering the architectural agency, the arguments of the Pavilion Republic of China design in the Osaka Expo in 1970 are reviewed under the conjugation of the nation-state and the society. To begin with macro-narrative before and after 1970 is to re-create the multiple visions. These paragraphs reconstruct the context of history to visualize the transparency of the building. Through it, we are able to see the connections among the building, the nation’ s political economic negotiations, social transformation, and the cultural identity. This kind of modern architecture looks like a physical space with modern form; in fact, it is a flowing space and an institute. In the conclusion of this dissertation, the historical context is examined to construct the discourse of Transplanting Modernity. Author emphasizes that the contemporary architectural profession should re-construct epistemological approach of seeing the possible initiative and transforming within “modern-architecture-history” to re-understand Architecture and Modernity in postwar Taiwan.