Everything that fills the first floor of No. 89-4 Zhonghua Road in western Taipei City’s Wanhua District gives it the aura of an upscale gallery: soft lighting, whitewashed brick walls and chilled air fragrant with the subtle aroma of Earl Grey tea.
But as recently as two years ago, homeless people squatted in this decaying neighborhood scheduled for demolition to make way for new housing developments. Now Project UrbanCore has transformed the buildings into a home to more than a dozen art studios and galleries, thanks to support from the Jut Foundation for Arts and Architecture, a nonprofit subsidiary of Taipei’s Jut Land Development Group, a major player in the emerging urban renewal sector.
“The idea is to utilize the idle space in urban areas before the renewal process kicks in, which usually takes two to three years to complete,” said artist Yao Jui-chung, one of the foundation’s executive directors. “It meets the needs of both artists desperate for space and the public who want to appreciate art outside museums.”
Yao is not alone in seeing the potential for reusing idle properties. In 2010, Taipei City’s Urban Redevelopment Office launched the Urban Regeneration Station initiative, hoping to breathe new life into neglected parts of the city. The program has converted a bottle cap factory in Nangang District into an avant-garde art playground, two old brick houses in the historical Dadaocheng neighborhood into a gallery and a shop, and the former site of a railway terminal into a 2.3-hectare lawn.
“URS is property shared by all citizens. … Creativity, art, culture and design are used as catalysts for urban regeneration,” a URO brochure proclaims.
By finding fresh, albeit temporary, leases on life for spaces in limbo before they enter their next reincarnation, the URS project has drawn attention to the fact that Taipei City, an urban area in transition, is plagued with houses waiting to be demolished and rebuilt even before they get old.
Instead of overhauling an entire neighborhood, URS works to revitalize it with creative projects, often in partnership with international teams.
Aaron Lee, chief executive director of the JFAA, said the hookup between city authorities and artists inevitably calls for brokering and financial support from the private sector. This puts his organization in a very good position to carry out projects, thanks to its affiliation with the construction conglomerate.
“What we have been able to achieve would be unthinkable for a traditional construction company,” he said April 3 while sitting comfortably in a well-lit cafe at the Chungshan Creative Hub, the latest URS site managed by his foundation, complete with white furniture designed in Scandinavia and shiny glass doors separating the lawns from the minimalist atelier.
“Our projects have been designed to foster meaningful dialogues among architects, artists and city dwellers.
“This place used to be an eyesore—dark, derelict and full of junkies,” he said, referring to the 4,150-square-meter site that in the 1930s served as a distribution center for the then state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp. It is now home to galleries and a chic restaurant managed by the foundation.
Earlier, the project had also incorporated a community art program including an urban farm operated by local residents.
Since 2007, the JFAA has made a reputation among art aficionados with its “Museum of Tomorrow” series. Temporary exhibitions created by avant-garde artists from Denmark, Japan and the Netherlands drew art-loving urbanites to a 9,000-square-meter downtown location that used to host warehouses for the Taiwan Railways Administration.
That site is now undergoing a major transformation into a condo project comprising two 23-story residential buildings and an office complex, scheduled for completion in four more years. Properties are selling like hot cakes, at an astounding price of NT$484,000 (US$16,356) per square meter, nearly double the average in nearby areas.
Many observers predict that URS sites such as the Chungshan Creative Hub will face a similar fate once their leases run out, but Lee believes otherwise. Since they are now owned by either the National Property Administration or the city government, it is very likely they will remain accessible to the general public.
“It’s my impression that the city government intends to seek continuation of these projects,” he said. “The more popular they become, the higher the chances are that they will become permanent creative centers.”
A well-known precedent exists at Huashan 1914 Creative Park, an abandoned TTL distillery that has been turned into a junction of artistic venues, including performance and exhibition halls, bars, restaurants and design shops, with a new building planned to host art studios.
Lee’s vision is to further the dialogue among construction firms engaged in urban renewal, artists and the people of the city, as can be seen in the current exhibition at the Chungshan Creative Hub. “The People’s City” shows the efforts of Taiwanese architect Hsieh Ying-chun to help typhoon and earthquake victims rebuild their homes from scratch, alongside a documentary by Japan’s Wa Wa Project in memory of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
In addition, the JFAA’s MotStyle brand—derived from its success with the “Museum of Tomorrow” series—now manages chic cafes, bistros and design furniture shops that seem to imply something about lifestyle choices.
“In the process of Taipei’s constant makeover, we seek to inspire participation from the general public,” Lee said. “The people who live here should be able to decide what kind of future living environment they want.”
The JFAA’s catchphrase is “A Better Tomorrow,” but the various actors in urban renewal may have different views on how the future can be better, and for whom. For Lee, certainly, the answer lies in fuller public involvement. Only time will tell how the people of the city may profit from a game ruled over by municipal authorities and building contractors. (THN)
Write to Kwangyin Liu at kwangyin.liu@mail.gio.gov.tw