Hidden in plain sight
Though only a few of the many buildings constructed during this period still stand to offer us a window into the past, there are more than you might think.
According to the Ministry of Culture’s 2016 “Assessment of US-Aid-Related Architectural Cultural Assets,” more than 500 structures built during the period with some form of assistance from the US still remain. These include military facilities, factories, office buildings, and schools.
If there are so many of these buildings, why don’t people notice them?
First, the buildings don’t have a uniform style like that imposed by the Japanese administration. They also lack any obviously American symbols, because US aid focused on functionality and cost effectiveness.
But American aid nonetheless had a profound impact on the history of Taiwanese architecture. American capital offered Taiwan’s first generation of architects numerous opportunities to showcase their skills. They took advantage of them by applying the modernist influences they had picked up while studying Western architecture, and they were also influenced by American practices in terms of construction technologies and materials, such the use of cinder blocks and prestressed concrete.
Imagine the Taiwan of those days for a moment: World War II had just ended, goods were in short supply, and the extant architecture consisted primarily of large Japanese government buildings, Japanese-style wooden homes, and mud-brick structures. And then these sharply regular, geometrically shaped modernist buildings with plain exteriors suddenly began popping up….
The period marked the start of modern architecture in Taiwan.
The modernist architecture typical of the US aid period was built around the idea of simplicity, but architects sometimes added decorative touches such as varied geometric features.