TaiSugar Circular Village (TCV)is located within the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City,Tainan. This residential project is the first of its kind in Taiwan, if not the world, focusing on circular economy concept in the built environment.
Studio Name: Bio-architecture Formosana
Design Team: Bio-architecture Formosana
Office Website: www.bioarch.com.tw
Client: Taiwan Sugar Corporation
Year: 2017 – 2021
Gross Built Area: 28,580 ㎡
Project location: Tainan, Taiwan
Program: Housing
Photo Credits: Studio Millspace
Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) has taken a bold initiative to experiment with this new economic model. This project is aptly placed within the master plan that was initiated by the government in 2016 with the vision to build a smart ecosystem city that co-develops with nature, as well as to build up “people-oriented” community and the necessary green life system. In response to the advent of a sustainable economy and the policy goals of nuclear-free homeland in Taiwan, the government has listed the circular economy as an important issue of its “Five plus two innovative industries policy”. Government thus makes efforts to boost the potential of circularity in the resource limited island so as to bolster the nation’s energy security, to create a green economy and to promote environmental sustainability.
The site is 10 minutes away from Tainan High Speed Rail station with the site area of 13,994.07 square meters. This development consists three identical housing blocks, a circular demo house (C-House)and an eco-house (E-house). There are a total of 351 rental units of mainly studio apartments with a small numbers of one bedroom, two bedroom and three bedroom apartments.
Modularization is crucial in larger scale urban developments to make fabrication assembly and disassembly more efficient and simplify the stocks of building material bank.
The “Circular Village” is made up of the three “Circular Blocks” where the living quarters are located, “Circular Field” where it consists of a “C-House,” an “E-House” and a “C-Farm.” The C-House functions as the living room of the village, the E-House as the kitchen, while the C-Farm is the garden where food is produced.
In the circular economy, materials are reused and virtually no waste is created. The design stage takes into account assembly in construction and deconstruction after use. Some of the materials used include recycled and green materials. For instance, the salvaged hardwood from TaiSugar’s old dilapidated buildings were used as the main structure for the E-House while their recycled railway tracks were designed as fence on the ground periphery. Also, the wooden planks from the old buildings were treated and reused as the wooden frame for the pivoted door at C-House. As to reduce the carbon emissions, we have opted for green materials like CLT (cross laminated timber) and recycled LED glass insulation blocks for the façade and internal partition.In order to design for disassembly, steel was chosen as the structural material rather than reinforced concrete.
Modular building components such as prefabricated PC boards, metal louvers for the façade, prefabricated floor panels for slabs were used in conjunction with BIM software to comprise the BAMB database. In order to further fulfil the spirit of circular economy, the ownership for the elevator, lighting, furniture, and sanitary fixtures were replaced with usership—so in other words, rented instead of purchased.
Awards：
Public Construction Golden Safety Award（2020）
FIABCI-Taiwan Prix D’Excellence Awards Planning & Design Excellence Award（2019）
World Architecture Festival Awards, shortlist (Residential- Future Project category)（2018）
