Liao, Yu Shiuan
National Taipei University of Technology
/Living Around the RCA-The Transformation of an Abandoned Industrial Site
Site: Radio Corporation of America(RCA) Taiwan Limited, Taoyuan City
Liao, Yu Shiuan
National Taipei University of Technology
/Living Around the RCA-The Transformation of an Abandoned Industrial Site
Site: Radio Corporation of America(RCA) Taiwan Limited, Taoyuan City
In 1969, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), an international company which was manufacturing television and other electronic products, chose Taiwan which had lower wages but high quality labor, not to mention loose labor and environment regulations, to establish its new factory. Sadly, RCA did not tell Taiwanese that, during the process of manufacturing, large amount of dangerous chemical pollutants was used and later discharged into the air, water andground of the RCA factory. The pollution has caused its labor to be exposed to severely toxic substances that seriously harmed their health, and the limited of RCA factory sitll consolidation untile now. As I discovered the architecture terms related to the order of the RCA factory building through references, several obvious embedded issues were found. They are labor exploitation, gender inequality, occupational injury, and environmental pollution. These might caused by the elements of how the factory was built. The elements of building configuration were aimed at making the company's most interests. The female workers were under the control, and their space using were also limited. They had been exposed to toxic substances without protection. The RCA not only harmed the laborers, but severely polluted the environment also.
The aim of this work is to transform the negative experiences by keeping certain history features of the RCA factory order while creating a public landscape architecture that associates with neighborhood with its open-space area. Based on the above mentioned concepts, the architecture includes the assigned business land with 30% public welfare, open-space area during and after in-situ remediation at the edges of north, west, and east areas that surround the RCA factory in response to the previous RCA community on Fujin Street, the restoration of polluted canal, the nowadays residents, and the shelter for migrant workers. Moreover, the landscape with multiple plants represents the layers of the architecture in different seasons. This creates extremely different space experiences for the diverse nearby residents. Hope the whole project may provide various perceptions as it related to the RCA issues.