安那其建築園丁
廢墟建築學院香港 ‧ 深圳城市建築雙年展特報
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River can get out of control - at least out of human 2.After the consumption dirty water including sewage control. It is almost as if it supposed not to be and grey waters are collected to the Dihua, Neihu controlled by human. Industrial city is an ultimate and Bali sewage treatment plants from where the manifest of human control, a machinery to regulate clean water is again released either to the rivers or human life. This machine and the hydraulics of into the Taiwan Strait. nature seem to be in some sort of conflict trying to fit together in the same Taipei Basin.
Officially 63 % of the Taipei Basin is connected to
the sewage treatment system. The rest 37 % is still
The river is flooding, which is something that the released straight into the rivers and these are “official
city doesn't want and the city is polluting which is numbers”. The un-official real volume of river
something that the river doesn't want. An easy, pollution is higher. According to the Dihua sewage
almost fast-food solution was to build a wall between treatment plant “there is a lot of small factories in
the city and the river. The flood and the rest of the the mountains who release their pollution to the rivers water is supposed to stay on the other, “organic” at nights.”
side of the city-river coexistence and the wall also
keeps the stinky and polluted water out of sight. Out T h e n a t u r a l r i v e r r e s t o r a t i o n i n Ta i p e i ' s u r b a n
of sight, out of mind.
conditions requires knew kind of socio-ecological knowledge building and decision making. The
T h e w a l l h a s b e e n u p a l r e a d y a c o u p l e o f d i ff e r e n t r i v e r r e l a t e d d e p a r t m e n t s o f t h e c i t y generations. For the young Taipei citizens the river g o v e r n m e n t ( r i v e r, h y d r a u l i c , e n v i r o n m e n t a l hardly exists, nature has become a fiction. Now the p r o t e c t i o n , u r b a n d e v e l o p m en t , u r b a n d e s i g n ,
↑ The Dictator's Wall: 12 meters high concrete wall separating the modern Taipei from its roots.
city government has admitted that building the wall public works etc.) admit that they are lacking cross-
and polluting the river has been kind of an “official disciplinary co-operation and that they don't see
mistake” and tries to find strategies to make this up any participatory planning around the urban river
for the citizens. They build bicycle ways to the river restoration issue, but that they want this. They want banks and paint official graffiti on the wall. Riverside to get out from their corners and also give space for
parks are being created and citizens are encouraged the other department to come to their territories. They
to cherish the “blue highway”. Same time citizens want to co-operate, but the problem is: every corner
are not allowed to create spontaneous community has a king. farms along the rivers and the wall has not moved
anywhere. River is allowed to exist only under the These kings lay down the disciplines and official
official control as the citizens are only allowed to be power hierarchies that cannot tolerate any changes
with the river under the same official control.
and that feel every spontaneous move as a threat.
These kings make sure their officials protect their
Taiwanese nature, as any nature is against any territories against the other department. “No, you
kind of control. The only rule of nature is existence cannot plant here anything: the river banks belong
maximum, to produce maximal life in the given to the river department.” And to make things even
conditions. This goes for the jungle and this goes for more complicated around the river is not only all the
the communities in the Taipei Basin. Organic human Taipei City departments but also the Taipei County settlements can find a way how to coexist with the and the Central Government fighting for their rights to
rest of the nature. This has been the reality also in control. Meanwhile: nothing happens.
Taipei before the hyper-industrialism.
In the middle of the Danshui River should be set up
With the industrial-economic growth the co-existence a boat. A new Noah's Ark where the representatives ↑ The blue highway cut off from people by a 12 meters high reinforced concrete wall.
with nature has been forgotten and the people and of the shareholders of the river would gather for
communities living along the environment are seen as participatory planning. Besides the different city, garbage. Now that the environmental consciousness c o u n t y a n d c e n t r a l g o v e r n m e n t o ff i c i a l s t h e r e
has become an “international trend” also Taipei w o u l d b e s c h o l a r s , s c i e n t i s t s , N G O ' s a n d t h e
has become to realize, that it is actually a river city.
Now the big question with this urban ecological
representatives of the Local Knowledge. Missis Chen
would be there, the Jiantai fishermen and the Amis.
awakening is whether urban nature (river, mountains, This participatory planning would lead into decision
jungle, wetlands…) is continued to be seen as an making concerning the river restoration and the almost virtual ecological amusement park, or can relationship between the city and the river. Maybe
the official Taipei accept nature to be real? Can the the participatory planning would be chaired by United
river be real and are the citizens allowed to do real Nations? The UN-HABITAT is looking for an urban
things with real nature? Is a grandmother allowed to river case that could be used as an example for establish a vegetable garden along the river and take other similar kind of cases around the world. Taipei
clean water from the stream?
PARTICIPATORY PLANNING A lot of water needs to go through a city in order to
keep it alive. In Taipei it goes like this:
1.Fresh water from the mountains is collected to the
could lead the way. Cleaning the river and creating sustainable River Urbanism is not a technological
question, it is a question of communication and participatory planning.
FIVE ELEMENTS
sweet-water reservoirs of Wulai and Taoyuen from The Taipei River Urbanism will be cooked up with five
↑ Nature is pushing into the city no matter how hard we want to block it away. The harder the barrier between the city and the nature becomes, the harder will be the nature's push.
where it is directed to the purification plants in a elements: Local Knowledge, Collective Ownership,
couple of points around the city. From these water Environmental Technology, Natural River Restoration
centers the drinking water is the directed to the and Architecture. households and other water consumer units.
L o c a l K n o w l e d g e a n c h o r s t h e f u t u r e Ta i p e i