The Architecture Digital Archives Project in Taiwan Prof. Feng-Tyan LIN National Cheng Kung University (NCKU)

Content  Organization  Scope  Classification  Meta-data  conclusions

The Organizational Framework of Taiwan Digital Archives Expansion Project

Map and Architecture Thematic Group  Institutional project: The Map and Remote Sensing Imagery Digital Archive Project (  Projects by Requesting for Proposals:  There were 32 projects from 2004 to  Projects were proposed by universities.  Most projects were in southern (9) and northern (6) Taiwan.  Guideline of architecture digitization

What is Architecture?  Oxford dictionary:  the art or practice of designing and constructing buildings  the complex or carefully designed structure of something  Article 4, Building Law (Taiwan)  Architecture is a construction which is built on land or underground, with roof, beams, columns, or walls for individual or public use.  A construction built by well prepared plan and techniques.

Scope Three kinds of objects: (1) Architectural constructions (2) Documents, maps (3) Oral histories :  interviews with master workers

Principle of selecting objects  world heritage or scarcity  important buildings whose culture or technique is to be lost  important buildings which are endangered, to be removed, or demolished  important buildings which have cultural, political, military, or other significances, even they are not listed in historical buildings yet.  Historical sites or buildings  Representative buildings in different periods

A traditional village in Peng-hu islands

A master worker’s oral history and manuscripts

 Traditional Hakka house

Historical building in NCKU digitized by LIDAR

 Building of Court of Justice, Tainan Class= 建築物 &Level=&ExcavationName=&page=&DataType=image&id=1142

Classification by chronicle  It clearly shows the process of building type development.  Dictionary of Taiwan Architecture (2007)  Austronesian, Dutch and European, Chinese, Western-in-Ching-dynasty, Japanese, mordern.  An Illustrated Handbook of World Architectures (2008)  Ancient time, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Middle Ages, Renaissance, centuries, modern

Classification by forms  Climate and geographical factors affect architectural forms.  Wong (1993) classified Chinese dwellings into 22 categories, such as rounded/square earthen building, Fujian, Guangdong, Ganlan, etc.  Taiwanese dwellings, influenced by Fujian and Guangdong styles, can be further classified based on the taxonomy above.

Classification by functions  Illustrated Handbook of 500 Japanese Buildings since 1860s (2008)  Government, industry, public facility, school, house, and military  Lee (2003) classifies Chinese traditional architectures into:  Castle wall, gate, fort battery, school, temple, house, garden, monument, tomb

Cross-classification  Dictionary of Taiwan Architecture (2007)  Classification by chronicle  Classification by form, material, construction, and usage

Multi-definition  Researchers may define their own classifications in a systematic way.  Meta-data should record classification methods.  It is possible to build up ontology and use XML to map corresponding terms among different classifications.  Ontology has different meaning in philosophy and computer science.  Philosophy: the being of the things.  Computer science: (object oriented) data structure for representing the things.

meta-data  Data about data  A database describing background information of collected objects (books, maps, materials,…)  8 aspects to be filled: basic information, relationship with other objects, physical attributes, construction, style, actors, activity, reference.  Every record in meta-data is corresponding to a digital file, such as an image, a vector based model, a taped audio file, etc.  There are relations of parent-children and brother. The relations should be recorded.

Object relation in meta-data 3D model Front view Side viewTop view Sectional view door window legend ： Parent-children brother

Conclusions  A national project to promote digital archives (  The scope, classification, and meta-data for digital archived architectures have to be studied further.  Only a small portion of valuable buildings and villages have been archived.  In addition to technology and data, it also involves issues of administrative, financial support, intellectual property, and value addition.

Thank you for your attention!