If you've been to the Lanyang Plain, did you notice what the farmhouses dotted about the green countryside looked like?
How many of you remember? That's right! In the boundless expanse of flat paddy fields, a thick wall of greenery, behind which one glimpses a home with green trees, a blue sky, grey tiles, a low red brick wall around, and whitewashed walls. Following the winding path which twists its way along the low banks between the fields, the front door comes into view. "That's what coming home should be like," says architect Wang Chen-hua with feeling.
Ilan folk call this kind of traditional farmhouse a "bamboo fence" house. Along with being able to lift one's head and see Kuishan Island from anywhere on the Lanyang Plain they figure among Ilan people's deepest memories.
According to Wang Chen-hua's categorization, Ilan's architectural tradition can be divided into four phases on the basis of chronological order: aboriginal, Han Chinese, Japanese occupation, and modern to post-modern. The buildings of various styles which one can still see today, and the ways in which they have adapted to modern life, are living examples to help us understand architectural change.
Because of the passage of time and the lack of detailed research or efforts to protect them, aboriginal buildings have disappeared from Ilan, and one can only try to imagine them from descriptions in historical records. （courtesy of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica）
This granary in Toucheng is an example of a building from the Japanese occupation era. This brick-built structure is fronted with a gable wall, and has three adjacent archways under a broad overhang which gives shelter from the rain. The building has an insulating sloping roof to keep it cool, and a raised base to keep out damp. Sadly, these traditions are rarely upheld in Ilan's new buildings.
Many Han-Chinese-type dwellings still exist in Ilan. The houses behind fences of greenery belong to this group. They retain traditional architectural features such as overhanging eaves and low gates, and in the Ilan area often have walls built of the large pebbles which are found locally. Traditional windows in such patterns as crab-apple leaves or turtle shells were used frequently, but the bamboo-segment patterns common in other areas are rarer. The frames were generally painted light blue or dark brown. (courtesy of Wang Chen-hua)
Since Taiwan's economic take--off in the 1960s and 70s, most new houses in Ilan County have been square concrete boxes faced with ceramic tiles and with a balcony around the outside. But they still retain shutters to protect against typhoons.
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