I went to a University architectural project that was challenging how to use space in Taipei in older buildings and apartment blocks. They had taken over an apartment block area that was to be demolished and had put into practice some actual design ideas. There were plants growing inside and water dropping off the roof through a hole that travels all the way to the bottom floor. Also there were areas in between buildings utilising the dead space there as well.
Taipei is a dense urban environment, in this link it is listed as being 7th for population density in the world at 15,200 people per square km. Melbourne comes in at 127th for density at 1500 people per square km, yet it is the 25th largest city by area in the world. So by these calculations there are ten times more people living in every square km in Taipei.
These stats are reflected in the dynamism of Taipei, on every street there are food hawkers, many bars, eateries, the ubiquitous convenience stores….by comparison the experience of living in an Australian city seems as if you have been wandering around in a post-apocalyptic zombie film.
This display of architectural students ideas and works was interesting in this context and also against the background of the Japanese tsunami as they discussed how to utilise the green space that abuts the Keelung and Danshui rivers. As there are annual typhoons during summer these rivers have flooded before, some of them right into urban areas. As a response to this the Taipei city government has put a buffer zone between the river and the city by zoning a couple of hundred metres on either bank for no building. Sometimes in these areas tennis courts or basic sports grounds are built but nothing that can be ruined by flooding like housing, commercial or electrical infrastructure.
