The Birth of Multi-Story Apartment Housing
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Liu, Hsin-Jung
Abstract
This study would attempt to conduct observation of Taipei City as its main scope, and re-write the history of “Gong-Yu”(公寓) (walk-up apartment.) During the retrospection of such history, my interest for the “birth of Multi-Story Apartment” is mainly placed in hoping to appreciate exactly what are the social and cultural conditions (no matter if it is with the discursive or material aspect) that have endowed to support the fast process of “apartment-ization” of Taipei during the times between 1950-1960? Meanwhile, exactly what kind of imagination and expectation of modern life have brought to people as they move into apartment? Once we have seen those impacts that have affected us as modern subjects with urban living experiences, how then should we put them into the writing process of architecture and urban process with gender-based perspective? Besides, what kind of discursive framework should we employed to display Gong-Yu -- reckoned as a link of modern urban experience as site of history so that we can work to render a form of modern subject in preparation for history? This study would circle these issues of Gong-Yu as they are being placed on the construction of “apartment regime” – the focus of this research. In other words, we will make use of “apartment regime” as the temporary concept for various kinds of related power, knowledge, and systematic language regarding modern experiences that embraces Gong-Yu. Under such framework of understanding, this study will base on post-war Taipei City during the early days as its primary time-spatial scope for observation, and attempt to discover various kinds of residence governance projects from archives of historical records and their realization for experiences of modernity so that we can gradually work to acquire the converging process of Gong-Yu as main urban-scape in this city.
With the investigation of “apartment regime,” this study has, initially, obtained three findings. First of all, we have observed from several post-war actions of residential governance that the desire with the nation state’s subjectivity endowed with “mimetic imagination” has continuously appeared in each of the residence government projects. In fact, we can, no matter if it is with ideal home derived from hygiene modernity, or demonstration construction action of urban housing initially launched by the state, or “military residence movement” actively marketed by Madame Soon and National Women’s League, or “Gong-Yu” apartment residence project delivered by Kao Yu-shuei, who represents urban administration, once and again find the notion of western and American-style ideal house carried with repeated “modern” governance imagination in its governance action and language.
Second, Gong-Yu, a recipe of urban modernization located by the urban administration at the island city – Taipei – within western urban context, has been brought to the forefront of the people based on the logic of capital accumulation as the core for various urban and residence governance skills as it is being delivered by westernization and Americanization. At the same time, we have also observed that “Gong-Yu,” being one of the governance skills of urban modernity, has not only stayed with superficial imitation such “multi-story” residential mode as translated from the west, but the key would be that the model of the entire residence production has, ever more, turned and tilted to the approach unveiled around the axis of professional division of labor and modern financial system. Meanwhile, the action of state residence governance has, furthermore, evidently followed the attitude of logic for commoditification. Take for instance, the state seems to have never any favorable and suitable ideal house deemed to be the supposedly residential rights of citizens. On the other hand, the state has, on the contrary, actively promoted the civilian population for saving movement, and help financial institutes to massively engross civilian capital, thus facilitating financial institute to start construction businesses for residential apartment, and so as setting down foundation for residential products as intervened by private enterprises.
All at the same time, novel liberal love romance and imagination of modern core family, family routines and disciple of hygiene modernity, and modern subjects learning for rational computation are being historically sculptured and engraved upon the construction process of apartment regime. Nonetheless, such modern subjects have always resorted to female as the role of undertaker for family routines and disciple as well as new family responsibility and also control of self-reproduction as its price. Therefore, the modern subject that has historically surfaced up has clearly carried gender-based mark, turning into gendered subject.
Through the historical elaboration on various kinds of residence governance projects since post-war to 1960s, this study has would attempt to substantiate that a gendered and sexualized modern subject has, at the same time, being vehemently invested by multiple calls as the race and state exploits various kinds of “Americanized” modern and cultural imagination for it employs economic rationality with logic of residential product as its bait, and makes use of liberal love romance, and core family built up with heterogeneous sex. In such a way, it has strengthened the expectation and recognition for “Gong-Yu” that comes along from mimetic imagination of the nation state and capitalist logical as it sustains modern core family, modern life of family route, and modern urban scenario. As one views historically, when “apartment regime” is being generated, it has, as well, created the birth of modern subject at the island city, and the delivery of “Gong-Yu” has then accompanied the naissance of countless “I” --- such a collective and gendered modern subjects.
Subjects
Gong-Yu
apartment regime
architectural modernity
architecture history
modern subject
post-war Taipei
SDGs
Type
thesis
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