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EnclosEd BalconiEs: complicity BEtwEEn

BuildErs and usErs of taipEi walkups

Jin-Ann Lin
Abstract
The balcony, an integral element in modernist housing, can be found in almost every Taipei apartment building. Even
so, in Taipei most balconies have been enclosed by users of all social classes. This paper looks into the historical con-
text of the enclosed balcony by arguing that the identity and origins of the Taipei balcony are inseparable from the
1960s birth of a modernist housing type‒‒the Taipei walkup.

open house international Vol.40 no.3, september 2015. Enclosed Balconies:: complicity Between Builders and users of taipei walkups.
Balcony provision, governed by building codes inherited from a colonial past, has been incorporated into the sys-
tem of speculative market housing. For builders, balconies are profitable floor areas that can be promoted as a sym-
bol of modern living; for users, balconies are additional floor space that can be transformed into interior spaces.
However, owing to the threefold combination of initial unfamiliarity of apartment buildings, underinvestment in the urban
environment, and dire political circumstances, it is the balcony which has borne the brunt of the underdeveloped rela-
tionship between public and private life. In the context of this new housing type, the practice of enclosing balconies
arose through the complicity of builders and users.

Keywords: Balcony, Modernist Housing, Walkup Apartments, Taipei, Illegal Building.

Figures 1 & 2. Balconies in the same group of walkup apartment buildings (in 2013 and in 1979, prior to occupancy).
Source: The 1979 image is from the author’s collection and the 2013 image was taken by the author.
constitute illegal extensions of interior space). therefore,
invisible Balconies and the taipei cityscape the present paper asks: what is the point of going to such
trouble to build balconies, only to enclose them at a later
since the 1920s, the balcony has played a key role in date?
modernist housing design, enabling people living above records show that in 44% of cases where bal-
the ground floor to enjoy sunlight and air. it may also conies have been enclosed with windows, these windows
bring the thrill of being visually connected to, while phys- were added prior to occupancy; in 19% of cases, they
ically separate from, the street below. the balcony has were added during the first year of occupancy (lin 1990:
become a modern symbol for domestic leisure and con- 95). these chronological details make taipei’s enclosed
spicuous urbanity. moreover, it acts as a form of passive balconies somewhat different from other examples of
environmental control by providing a spatial buffer environmental alteration which have taken place over
against the elements.i longer periods of time (e.g. see Brand’s popular book
in taiwan, the balcony is an integral part of res- How Buildings Learn, 1995).
idential architecture. However, at first glance, the bal- moreover, this trend for low-cost architectural
conies in taipei’s apartment buildings may be invisible modification crosses economic class boundaries.
as most have been enclosed with windows or steel Enclosed balconies existed in all kinds of apartment
grilles. in a sample record, 36% of the residential build- buildings. By contrast with people living in deprived
ings had built-up balconies across the board and 85% areas, who might actually build their own houses, these
of all balconies were built up.ii it is as if balconies were apartment owners did not carry out cut-price and illegal
unwanted by apartment owners, especially those who modifications because of a lack of economic resources.
enclose their balconies with windows (which, in fact, nonetheless, beyond the current interest in urban gover-
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nance strategies in third-world countries, it seems very lit- social space inspired ideas for living in this new type of
Jin-ann lin

tle attention is being paid to illegal building activities in building and was also intimately connected to social
ordinary, privately owned housing. urban morphologists phenomena such as building codes, real estate adver-
have noted that: tisements, and user perceptions and manipulation of the
remarkably little is known about the changes that shape new space. this paper argues that, for taipei, the
the physical character of ordinary residential environ- enclosed balcony was an inherited architectural problem
ments [….] However, viewed in the context of the life his- which arose at the moment of housing modernization,
tories of most residential areas, these are unusual hap- involving both builders’ and users’ responses to that spa-
penings, albeit important when they occur. (whitehand tio-social change (e.g. the installation or modification of
et al. 1999: 503) balconies in the new walkup housing type). thus, before
such additions or illegal building happen on a being seen as a question for environment behavior stud-
smaller scale in taipei and elsewhere than in most slum ies, it should first be investigated as a historical problem
communities and are not aggravated by extreme pover- of complicity between builders and users.
ty, but such activities are ubiquitous and, taken together,
have a significant influence on the prevailing cityscape the regulatory context of Balcony provision
and domestic culture. thus, an insight into these modifi-
cations is also essential for our understanding of con- Balcony provision in taiwan has been heavily influenced
temporary societies and environments. by building codes and the privatized housing supply. on
although the act of enclosing balconies has a the one hand, the codes meant that balconies no more
positive side (e.g. active user participation), the negative than one meter deep would not contribute to overall site
open house international Vol.40 no.3, september 2015. Enclosed Balconies:: complicity Between Builders and users of taipei walkups.

impact on urban aesthetics and climate control is unmis- coverage; on the other hand, builders viewed the bal-
takable. whereas a balcony serves as a passive cooling cony as “additional” floor space which could justify high-
device, the “greenhouse effect” of an enclosed balcony er selling prices.
results in substantial heat gains and thus necessitates from very early on, building codes encouraged
mechanical cooling (liu 2006; wang 2009). balcony provision. from 1936, when taiwan was under
However, this is not to say that the taiwanese do Japanese rule, the building code gave a one meter tol-
not know the value of semi-outdoor spaces. several erance for the depth of overhanging balconies in the cal-
types of space similar to the balcony have existed in ver- culation of site coverage (Governor-General of taiwan
nacular houses of various cultural origins in taiwan, and, 1936), though such leisure-oriented spaces were more
arguably, certain processes of cultural appropriation common in houses for the wealthy. this colonial code
must have associated newer dwelling environments with continued to be used in the postwar years, providing the
previous spatial forms (Gomez 2013). indeed, the semi- regulatory environment into which modernist walkups
outdoor and outdoor spaces of the domestic setting were born in the early 1960s and functioning until the
have been extensively studied not only for their sustain- 1974 advent of the new building code, which retained
ability and cultural value but also in relation to the inte- the previous regulations relating to balcony depth
gration of such spaces in newer types of dwellings (na et (figure 3)(cpami 1974).
al. 2013; Hussein et al. 2010). therefore, it is worth ask- the prevailing forms of apartment balconies
ing why balconies in taipei have so rarely been used as have gradually changed, in step with successive building
semi-outdoor spaces. codes. as the 1936 code did not limit floor area for bal-
scholars have attempted to solve this puzzle, conies under one meter deep, and as site coverage was
but their explanations fall short because they fail to take not always maximized in the early years, most early
into account the wider context. for example, some stud- taipei walkups had balconies that girdled the whole
ies have claimed that, at one meter deep,iii the balconies apartment (figure 4). when real estate planning became
were too shallow to be functional (lin 1990:90; chen more sophisticated, one-meter-deep balconies became
1996); others have argued that balconies are enclosed consistent features at the front and rear of apartments
to avoid direct sun and rainwater (lin 1990). moreover, until the 1982 code increased the “free” depth to one
it is often a practical measure to sacrifice a rarely used and half meters (figure 5)(cpami 1982).
balcony for more interior space. But these findings are Balcony provision is also deeply intertwined
not quite correct. in fact, many balconies in big apart- with speculation in housing development. modest bal-
ments were also enclosed, so were many 1.5m deep conies were permitted by the building code and enabled
balconies. builders to profit by selling what were, in effect, more
the above explanations focus on individual expansive floor spaces. in local practice, real estate
aspects of the balcony but not how it was created as a prices were largely based on the price per unit floor
part of urban life. the present paper calls attention to the area, although the overall price was also considered.
changing identity of the balcony in the midst of the trans- Balcony areas were priced at the same rate as interior
formation of housing architecture in taipei. the mod- areas but cost less than half as much to build. as post-
ernist walkup apartment building, which was introduced war housing in taiwan was dominated by market provi-
in the 1960s and quickly became predominant, has sion, unwanted balconies were a byproduct of both the
greatly shaped how balconies are designed and used. permissive building code and speculative housing pro-
this new type of housing (hereafter referred to as “taipei duction.
walkups”iv) was architecturally linked to the modernist
hall-type apartment housing which originated in selling the apartment Balcony
Germany by modernist architects in the 1920s and
which has since been adopted globally (lin 2015: note real estate advertisements for taipei walkups promoted
8-11). the taipei walkup type differed largely from older the apartment balcony as a symbol of modern housing
local types not only in its height but also in its rapid rise (figure 6). Balconies were strong spatial elements in
to become the first formalized type of multi-family each apartment unit and on the building façade, and
dwelling.v their vertical repetition in the taipei walkups made them
the creation of the apartment balcony as a new an inseparable part of the imagery of modern urban liv-
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culture of removing one’s shoes before entering the

Jin-ann lin
indoor space). this set-up also permitted a continuation
of the vernacular entry sequence, according to which
one enters from the most exterior, front area and gradu-
ally comes deeper into the interior. the front balcony
entrance dominated the plans of taipei walkups, where-
as the original western models tended to locate the
entrance between the living and dining spaces (figure 4,
right, and figure 5).
Enclosed balconies were so common and so
universally overlooked by the authoritiesvi that in the
2000s many forms of enclosure were incorporated into
the standard design to the extent that enclosed balcony
spaces became inseparable from the plan organization
and room functions (see figure 7). some of these mod-
Figure 3. Plan diagrams indicating how balcony areas con- ifications were used as promotions by builders and in
tributed to site coverage. Source: Building Technical many cases were even made mandatory in order to
Regulations (CPAMI 1974, text translated and graphics ensure coherent elevations. the illegal building up of
rearranged and clarified by the present author). balconies had turned from a collective but piecemeal act
into a formal practice in housing production (figure 7).

open house international Vol.40 no.3, september 2015. Enclosed Balconies:: complicity Between Builders and users of taipei walkups.
as usual, the authorities still kept on ignoring such illegal
activities.

Figure 4. Elongated balconies in a famous early Taipei


walkup project (1966–1973). Left: This building shared the
typical plan of most Taipei walkup buildings in the early
1960s, with one-meter-deep balconies, shown as shaded
areas here (1967). Right: In the newly finished block, many
balconies were enclosed prior to occupancy (1970).Source: Figure 6. Balconies played a central role in advertising.
The author’s collection. Accompanied by images of garden patches, American auto-
mobiles, paved wide roads, and well-dressed young cou-
ples, the “fresh, new design” of curved balconies was laud-
ed for giving a new suburban development a “fashionable
look.” Source: Advertising brochure for Lily Jade New
Village Series V (1973).

Figure 5. Linear balconies, shown as shaded areas here,


became typical in Taipei walkups in the late 1960s (1968).
By comparison with the earlier typical plan (see Figure 4),
the front balcony does not fully extend along the façade and
the rear L-shape layout and rear yard have been eliminated,
bringing paired blocks even closer. Source: The author’s col-
lection.
ing in taipei. Figure 7. In the showcase unit plans of two condominium
However, unlike modernist balconies, taipei projects, parts of the legal balcony areas have been brought
walkup balconies were planned as functional spaces: inside to form a bedroom or a kitchen-dining area. The orig-
the rear balcony was a laundry room for washing and inal exterior walls are shown as dashed lines. Source:
hanging clothes and the front balcony doubled as a Advertising pamphlets of two projects in Taipei
vestibule (an absolute necessity in a rainy climate with a (2010‒2011); the author’s collection
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perception and use: turning Balconies into rooms was mediated by the relation between the family dwelling
Jin-ann lin

and the street: large windows and cantilevered balconies


Having investigated how the balcony was seen by created a connection and a sense of reciprocal exhibi-
builders, let us turn to how it was perceived by users. two tion between the resident and the flaneur. this openness
things are immediately apparent. first, although the bal- toward strangers, argues marcus, transformed living
cony was a familiar feature in low-rise buildings, their experiences and created a housing architecture that
use in the new midrise creations gave them an air of made paris different from cities such as london which in
unfamiliarity. since the taipei walkup was the first type of other respects had a similar context of urbanization
multi-storied and multifamily housing, this was the first (marcus 1999: 17-41).
time most users had experienced such a space or such a in contrast to such modern transparency and
process of spatial negotiation. second, the balcony was the modernist pursuit of daylight and the untrammeled
a zone of vulnerable transparency that deeply chal- view, the window panes of taipei walkups were all
lenged people’s sense of the boundary between public translucent panes of rolled glass, which, in fact, cost
and private. as a new and still indeterminate urban fea- more than transparent ones. nowadays, reflective or
ture, the balcony’s openness not only went against the darkly shaded glazing is preferred since most taiwanese
cultural preference for visual privacy but also com- people are still uncomfortable about transparency in
pounded the harshness of urban surroundings and the housing architecture, feeling as if they were showing off
atmosphere of political intimidation. their homes or inviting themselves to be watched.vii this
as balconies became a standard component of is also related to the prudent character of the taiwanese
the prevailing housing type, numerous newspaper arti- and the high rates of burglary.viii the everyday saying
open house international Vol.40 no.3, september 2015. Enclosed Balconies:: complicity Between Builders and users of taipei walkups.

cles expressing concern were published. people were dis- “don’t show your moneyix” reminds people that visible
satisfied with the smallness of balconies and apartments; wealth incites robbery, theft, and jealousy. in addition,
tall buildings blocked out the sunshine; balconies got wet and perhaps more crucially, the political suppression of
in the rain and were too hot to stay in summer. Because the “white terror” (1949‒1987) made the people
close neighbors were now no longer relatives, com- extremely wary of being watched in their homes and
plaints tended to center around the extremely short dis- even loath to look into those of other people. on the
tance between buildings. other problems came from the building up of balconies and similar activities, an archi-
uses to which neighbors put their balconies: drying tectural designer has remarked:
clothes, keeping poultry, and installing plant pots which that was an acquisition, a kind of territorial
dripped water and could fall (central daily news concept. it was like, if they lived in a house without
1965‒68). putting up iron grilles, they would be very insecure and
feel that the interior was open to invasion or surveillance.
the following doggerel verse vividly describes some of it was the same with curtains: it wasn’t always a fear of
the common perceptions of the apartment space: others getting in; many people were just afraid of being
observed from outside (Hu 2010: 74-75, my transla-
Piled up, stacked up. Stacked up, piled up. tion).
This is a manmade mountain peak [...] on the other hand, people were also uninterested in
looking out of their windows because there was unlikely
Up and down, and down and up. to be a nice view. this was at a time of severe shortage
Like climbing hills indoors [...] in public amenities such as parks, pavements, and trees;
and although walkup projects frequently bore names like
Building up and building up [...] Villa or Village, they were located on noisy boulevards,
Yielding not an inch of space, or more often on streets and lanes no wider than four to
Shutting out fresh air. six meters, with blocks placed back-to-back, as close as
nineteenth century European tenement housing. all these
Iron windows, iron gates, locks and latches of brass. facts generated tension rather than relaxation among the
Shut in all day, new urban dwellers.
Prisoners who committed no crime [...] (Central Daily as a result, enclosing balconies seemed an
News 1980). effective way to reduce the transparency of the apart-
ment and also to maximize fully private space. and once
this verse tells us something not only about the balconies were enclosed, they were rarely opened up
space but also about the people. many of the early res- again. Even today, when taipei people are used to living
idents and apartment owners of taipei walkups were in apartments, and taiwan’s urban and political environ-
urban-rural migrants from other places in taiwan or war ments have changed beyond recognition, the initial
immigrants from china and their offspring. for those unfamiliarity with and antipathy towards the apartment
from rural areas and more temperate climates, the heat balconies continues to have an impact on the way peo-
and humidity of the taipei basin only intensified the dis- ple live with and without the balcony.
comfort of living in these crowded and tall apartment it is worth mentioning that another prospect for
buildings. balconies has emerged in the last decade. although the
in any case, people did not think of the balcony floor area ratio of balcony to interior remains
as a space for leisure—as prescribed by the architectur- unchanged, there is a significant tendency in high-end
al type—but for utility. apartment balconies were put to condominiums in taipei towards well-made balconies
use in ways that recalled previous housing types’ front that escape modification; indeed, they are becoming the
yards, gardens, threshing grounds, and courtyards. But new urban luxury. according to a famous residential
the leisure life and social interaction of these former architect, “the future residences favored by the affluent
spaces never truly took root on apartment balconies. will not be small-windowed fortresses emphasizing solid-
this situation also brought tensions to residen- ity and security, but will contain their own outdoor
tial life. discussing parisian apartment houses of the 19th rooms” (apple daily online news 2012, my translation).
century, sharon marcus relates how the sense of privacy yet, in one of this architect’s creations, the prominent
14
front balconies are equipped with sliding wooden shut- cpami, 1974 and 1982, Building technical regulations, construction

Jin-ann lin
ters and glazed doors that allow them to be fully and planning agency, ministry of interior, taipei, taiwan; in chinese.
enclosed.
dGBas, 2001, report on the taiwanese Housing status survey in the
conclusion year 2000, directorate-General of Budget, accounting and statistics,
taipei, taiwan; in chinese.
this paper analyzes the phenomenon of enclosed bal-
conies in taipei by pointing to their historical beginning GErBEr, a. 2015, Taipei successfully ‘improves’ illegal rooftop struc-
in relation to the new type of urban housing‒‒the tures, taipei times, march 24, p 4. available online,
walkup apartment building. we offer an explanation for h t t p : / / w w w. t a i p e i t i m e s . c o m / n e w s / t a i w a n / a r c h i v e s /
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open house international Vol.40 no.3, september 2015. Enclosed Balconies:: complicity Between Builders and users of taipei walkups.
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wHitEHand, J. w. r., mortEn, n. J. and carr, c. m. H. 1999,
Jin-ann lin

Urban morphogenesis at the microscale: how houses change,


Environment and planning B: planning and design, 26, 503-515.

notes:

. Between 2001 and 2011, the local government in Hong kong even
subsidized balcony provision—so-called “green balconies”—to miti-
gate noise and air pollution (Building department, lands department
and planning department of Hong kong 2001). for the influence of
this policy and related commentary, see chau et al. (2005).

2. this is based on a survey of thirty-six mid-to-high-rise residential


buildings built in the late 1980s in the taipei region. in thirteen of these
buildings, the built-up rate was 100% (chen 1996).

3. the depth of a balcony is usually the horizontal dimension stretch-


ing from its front edge to the building’s exterior wall and the connect-
ing door.
open house international Vol.40 no.3, september 2015. Enclosed Balconies:: complicity Between Builders and users of taipei walkups.

4. also known as gong-yu, a chinese phrase used in Beijing since the


1920s. in taiwan, gong-yu are walkup apartments. similar to the word
“condominium,” gong means “public or commonly-owned” and yu
means “to dwell or dwellings”.

5. during a period of twenty years, the major housing type in taipei


changed from row houses (63.2% in 1962) to midrise walkup apart-
ments (73.60% in 1981). average building height also changed from
low-rise houses (80%) to midrise walkup apartment buildings (73.60%,
mostly four or five floors) (Bureau of public work 1964). in 2000,
walkups still accounted for more than 50 percent of all households and
remained the major type in the taipei housing stock (dGBas 2001).

6. the authorities had been ignoring these illegal building activities


and one excuse had always been that there are too many to be
ordered for demolition. recently the situation in taipei city had
changed and some illegal rooftop buildings were demolished (sui
2015; Gerber 2015).

7. see tseng (1994: 7-24). around 1949, at the end of chinese civil
war, an estimated 0.9 million chinese immigrated to taiwan, a third
of whom settled in the taipei region. Between 1960 and 1980, the
total population of the taipei region increased from 1.5 million to 4
million as a result of rural migration and the postwar natural increase.
in the taipei region in 1946, the ratio of people originating from the
taipei region, from other places in taiwan, and from china, respec-
tively, was 90:3:7; in 1990, this ratio was 30:21:49.

8. a preference for such a visual separation was also mentioned by an


interviewee, alex m. c. chou, a former land administrator in the
taipei region and also consultant and educator on real estate and
inheritance (interviewed on 5 november 2013).

9. in the years 1980–1982, just after the building peak of the taipei
walkups (mid-1960s to 1970s), the rate of residential burglary in
taiwan was 25%, but the clear-up rate was only 25.30% (ministry of
Justice 1983).

0. i.e. 錢不露白 (“cián bú lòu bái” in tongyong pingying).

author(s):

Jin-ann lin
national taiwan university, taipei,
taipei Beitou p. o. Box 16-142, Beitou district,
taipei, 11299, taiwan Email:
d93544002@ntu.edu.tw

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