蘭州國宅

August 30th, 2024

Lanzhou Public Housing (蘭州國宅) was one of 23 resettlement housing (整建住宅) projects constructed by the city government between 1962 and 1975, a program providing living space for approximately 11,000 households at its peak¹. This particular building in north-central Datong contained 510 households, many of them formed by migrants who previously lived in illegal or precarious housing at the margins of the burgeoning metropolis. Additionally, many units on the upper levels were staff dormitories allocated to cleaners and sanitation workers employed by the Ministry of the Environment².

A sign at the entrance for Changji Neighborhood Resident Activity Center (大同區昌吉區民活動中心), located in the basement.

One of several wide stairways inside the old public housing estate. A censer is faintly visible on the far left.

This area³ has long been one of the more rundown parts of Taipei. In the Japanese colonial era it was home to Taipei Livestock Market (台北市家畜市場) and Dalongdong Slaughterhouse (大龍峒屠宰場), both established around 1913, as well as Dalongdong Incinerator (大龍峒町塵芥燒却場), completed in the early 1930s. All were demolished around 1972 or 1973, clearing the way for Lanzhou Public Housing, the adjacent Shude Park (樹德公園), and the more recently refurbished Lanzhou Market (蘭州市場).

Oblique View of Lanzhou Public Housing (蘭州國宅)

Lanzhou Public Housing was shaped somewhat like a figure eight or infinity symbol with two square courtyards in the middle. Social welfare organizations and small shops operated out of storefronts at ground level, and though I didn’t manage to see it, there was also some kind of community center in the basement.

Textures of Lanzhou Public Housing (蘭州國宅)

Gazing Down on Lanzhou Public Housing (蘭州國宅)

Before the Destruction of Lanzhou Public Housing (蘭州國宅)

Near the Top of Lanzhou Public Housing (蘭州國宅)

By 2019 the entire complex had been completely razed.

Although the public housing projects of the 1960s and 1970s provided refuge for many families, they were all showing their age at the dawn of the new millennium. Unclear property rights, particularly with government workers on the upper levels, complicated urban renewal efforts, but the residents of Lanzhou Public Housing were eventually relocated, and the building was demolished around 2020. Two new buildings now occupy the former site of Lanzhou Public Housing. Time marches on.

Nanjichang Public Housing (南機場住宅) is the most famous of these projects still standing. ↩
Several details were gleaned from this article about the old housing complex. ↩
Read more about Dalongdong (大龍峒) on Chinese language Wikipedia here. ↩