A large Japanese colonial era compound built in 1931 and designed by architect Yaita Shigasuke (八板志賀助). It originally served as a suikōsya (水交社), an Imperial Japanese Navy officers’ club, before being repurposed for use as a school for Japanese children. After 1945 it was transferred to National Taiwan University as single faculty housing. The austere brick-and-timber complex comprises a central communal building connected by wooden corridors to twelve residential units flanking it on both sides. The central building was gutted by fire in 2013 and restored at great expense, reopening in 2019 as The Grand Courtyard (大院子), a restaurant.
Map
Heritage Status
- Historic Building (歷史建築)
Links
- Wikipedia in Chinese (中文維基百科)
- Cultural Assets Bureau (文化部文化資產局)
Themes
- Japanese Colonial Era Taiwan (台灣日治時代)
- Education History in Taiwan (臺灣教育史)
Nearby Locations
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Author
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I am a web application developer, photojournalist, urban explorer, and history enthusiast passionate about the open web and documenting my experiences on this planet. This project was founded in the early 2010s and has evolved into a sort of personal Wikipedia of places that interest me (and often the photographs I’ve taken there). I’m originally from Toronto, Canada, but spend most of my time residing in Taiwan.