Just like the title, today's blog intents to show some behind the scenes stuff about the digital restoration. I worked on this research project for about three and a half months. For the first two weeks, professor and I browsed around the University Archive for any "evidence" of the old building. It's like a detective work really since all the photos of the building are black and white, we had to read through the U of I Board of Trustee reports from around 1872 to find out about the materials when they first commissioned the construction. We then checked out the old construction drawings for references. Apparently, the University of Arkansas used the drawings of our University Hall to construct a building of their own called the Old Main, which served as a great reference for the depth of the relief and overhangs.
Interesting note: there's actually a building with the similar style in my hometown! It's the National Museum of Taiwan Literature. The building was constructed in 1916 under the Japanese Empire and was originally used as the government building. So what's the connection in all of this? It turned out that there was a movement for Japanese architecture students to study abroad at the U.K, and so they also brought back the Western classical revival movement to Japan, which eventually ended up in Tainan as well. The U.S was also influenced by the movement during that time, and that's how the University Hall got its design and why both Tainan and Champaign have similar buildings!
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I have mentioned several legendary architectures in my blog through out the years: from Parthenon to Palladio buildings to Corbu's to Zaha's, but never had the chance to talk about the buildings in my hometown (not even Eastern architecture, I think, which is a shame). I think it's a self-discovery process to go back and re-visit all those buildings after so many years with my new developed architectural perspective. Therefore, I am going to show you guys my favorite building in my hometown, Tainan: The Fort Provintia, as known as the Chikan Tower. Within only 400 years, Tainan had already been governed by the Dutch Republic, Empire of Japan, Qing Dynasty, and the Republic of China Historical Context I visited Volterra, Italy this summer, and learned about the idea of historical layers (Pre-Etruscan -> Etruscan -> Roman -> Medieval...etc). Tainan also as this sort of layers even though it's a relatively young city compare to others. Within only 400 years, Tainan had already been governed by the Dutch Republic, Empire of Japan, Qing Dynasty, and Republic of China, and the most amazing thing is that, the Fort Provintia had witnessed all these and documented all the historical contexts within its architecture! In 1624, the Dutch Republic established the settlement here in Tainan, and later on in 1652 built the Fort Provintia to defend off the locals. After the Dutch Republic retreated from Taiwan, the fort turned into a armory for Qing Dynasty. Starting from 1825, people start modifying the fort into multiple temples and classrooms. In 1895, the Empire of Japan conquered Taiwan during the first Sino-Japanese War, and turned the fort into a hospital to treat wounded soldiers. In 1918, Japanese turned the building into a school. After World War II in 1945, Taiwanese started the restoration of the monument. Amazing brick works! These sort of construction methods are dying out in Tainan. Please take a look at the two images above. The left hand side is from the Fort Provintia, and the right hand one is Church Santa Maria Novella in Florence. I found it very interesting that even though the constructs have difference meaning and purposes, but they both use scultural turtles to hold heavy objects. There is some sort of similarities in between civilizations and architectural languages, something more intuitive and primitive in the design.
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AboutThis blog was launched in August, 2015 during my 8th year of studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain. I decided to start this blog and record some of my thoughts and moments. This blog is also dedicate to Richard Fu, a good friend of mine who is now guarding me from above. He inspired me to get out of the comfort zone and be curious about the world. Amig@'s blogs
Check out my brother Will's blog (in Mandarin) to see what he's up to these days (Design, fashion, food, technology, music, film...etc) Check out Kris' website for some high quality photos around the world Archives
September 2023
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