Water as a medium – purifying citizens’ physical and mental needs in tranquil urban spaces

• Main Authors: Guan-Ming,Chen, 陳冠銘
• Other Authors: Chih-Feng , Shu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/rurbym

碩士 === 東海大學 === 建築學系 === 101 === Following a nation’s economic development, urban areas have transformed from agricultural landscape to modern industrial urban form in most cities in Taiwan. This tendency also has had a devastating impact to most rivers running through urban development areas so that most streams or rivers have been polluted due to the fact that fewer people really pay attention to these precious water resources. In most historical towns people’s daily living relies very much on the resource of water systems for needs of transportation, cleaning purpose, leisure activities, etc. Clearly there is a close and intimate relationship between local inhabitants and the water systems. However this intimate relationship has been blocked once the urban artifacts have been implanted to cover or to divert the water systems due to economic development needs for more commercial and facilities spaces (such as parking spaces). As a result, water systems have become neglected resources and even been polluted by daily waste water produced by all neighboring inhabitants because the sewage system was not introduced and waste water was directly channeled into the existing river network. From the implanted communal building on the river system, it is possible to identify three different types of reflecting images. They are reflecting images of the river, the city streetscape, and the activities inside and outside of the communal building respectively. Thus, water on one hand has become a medium to provide a background image for the collage of the three images mentioned above. Moreover, water also has become the main body, which in the end will determine the degrees of clearness of the collage images reflected onto the water body from the surrounding urban areas. Therefore, reflected water images can in effect function as observers’ reference of polluted status and water image in the water system that can be observed to distinguish its degree of cleanness in terms of the levels of clearness. It is hope that through these reflected images onto the water body and the observed water image itself, a better understanding on the water status can be learned on site and local people might have the chance to recall their intimate relationship with the river body again. Moreover, the inhabitants’ spiritual needs can also be lifted once they experience a body of water being purified and becoming clearer and cleaner. Thus this water system site will become a sacred place for inhabitants living in this city.