Residences of gods of civilians : the space-order of shrines and faith in Yichia area of Fongshan

• Main Authors: Ting-Yu Yeah, 葉庭宇
• Other Authors: Chen-Fu Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/6bchz2

碩士 === 國立雲林科技大學 === 建築與室內設計系 === 103 === 　　With the diverse ethnic groups and cultures existing in Taiwan, folk religion is an important part of life. For religious activities, temples are vessels of faith. During the population migration period in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, numerous regional temples were erected to draw local clans and communities together. Religion often provided pioneers with spiritual support, and their temples also served as strongholds for militia forces protecting the community. As a result, these temples also became centers of governance and organization and inherited local space culture. Later, during the Japanese colonial period, folk religion was suppressed and went underground. 　　It was not until Taiwan’s liberation and the 1950s and 1960s that diverse folk religion was gradually revived in the form of shrines by people looking to meet their spiritual needs 　　As times changed, people moved from traditional courtyard houses to collective housing, such as street houses, shophouses, and apartment buildings. In the belief that the gods are carrying out the sacred mission of saving the world and that everything has a soul, temples were incorporated into residences and residential communities as residential temples and shrines. The sense of domain that arises from interactions between the living space of people and the territories of the gods is an extension of local faith affinity and self-identification but has developed into the spirit of place, which is crucial in the modern urban environment. 　　Although there are rules and standards for the construction of traditional temples in religious architectural vocabulary, the hierarchical relationships, scales, and visual effects of the architectural space in residential temples mix the sacred with the mundane and the public with the private at the same time. In these blurred boundaries and the behavioral determinism molding the phenomenon of residential temples , the roles that community residents play in resident temples include (1) psychological comforters, (2) community activists, (3) religious operators, and (4) culture inheritors, as well as inconspicuous environment planners. Regardless of the role, the fact that the number of existing shrines exceeds that of convenience stores proves that they are indeed places where the urban public can relieve psychological stress and find solace. This study explores the residences and temples in low-rise residential areas in the urban Yichia area of Fongshan District, Kaohsiung City to identify the factors influencing the coexistence of host (original buildings) and symbiont (temple elements), their space-order relationships, and environmental visual phenomena. Based on the results, we proposed how a balance can be achieved among urban development, religious culture, and community services in future urban governance and provided direction for society-oriented policies.