The Modern Vernacular Reassessed

Abstract

This article aims to establish the Taipei walkup apartment building as a case of the modern vernacular. Taipei walkups were the first type of multistoried multifamily housing in Taiwan, originating in the 1960s and continuing to dominate Taipei’s cityscape today. We examine the political and economic influences of the United States on the birth of this type of housing architecture in Taiwan and, by further exploring vernacular elements applied to the buildings’ façades, point to the important role that local building culture played in the adoption and transfiguration of this modernist architecture. The article provides an example of the interactions between the modern and the vernacular, arguing that it is rather hard to defend the position that these are two entirely discrete categories.