Documentation, analysis and redevelopmentof the Tamsui river side in Taipei City | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

Taipei is located on the Tamsui River's right side, which has played an important role in the city's economic, social, and urban development. During the 1960s, population growth and fast urbanization resulted in development without sufficient management of the alluvial plains. Following some severe flooding in the 1960s, and in order to fulfill the increased demand for building land, the government devised a flood-control plan that included the construction of a 117-kilometer-long floodwall with a height range of 6.00 to 9.50 meters. Taipei became a walled city as a result, encircled by a high wall that separates the city from the river, compromising inhabitants' affinity with water. The goal of the vision presented in this paper is to make a city for people, to repair the relationship between the Tamsui and its peopleby increasing access and public areas on both sides of the floodwall, allowing the river to be reintegrated into Taipei as an extension of the city. The ability to replicate this timely action on a large scale, through a reactivation-capable process of the riverfront, to mend the original connection between people, Taipei, and the Tamsui river, aims to define a shift toward a people-centered urbanism and an environmentally conscious society, with the goal of becoming a source of hope and inspiration for our cities' aspirations to build a better future.