Red House Theater Audio Guide

Red House: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Red House

   Welcome to Red House, known in Chinese as 西門紅樓, a red-brick landmark standing in the Ximending district of Taipei's Wanhua District. Its address is Chengdu Road, and it sits a short walk from Ximen Station. The easiest way to reach it is to leave the station by Exit 1 and walk the few steps from there. This building has played many parts in its life. It opened in 1908 as a public market. Over the decades it became a storytelling hall, a cinema and a theater, and today it is a cultural and creative hub that hosts exhibitions and performances. As you take in the warm red walls, notice that the main building is really two buildings joined together. One is an eight-sided hall and the other is shaped like a cross. In the next few minutes I'll show you how that unusual pairing came about, what people bought here more than a century ago, and how the place found a new life in our own time.

2. 02

   Red House and the First Public Market

   Red House: There are 16 sets of them, joined by rivets, and a round opening lets light fall onto the ground floor.

   Let's go back to 1908, when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. Red House was built that year as the first public market the government itself had built in Taiwan. Its official opening day was the eighteenth of October 1908. It is now the oldest and best-preserved market building of its kind to survive on the island. This market worked differently from the traditional Taiwanese markets of the time. A manager oversaw daily operations and kept strict watch over the environment, making sure the interior was clean, well ventilated and pleasant to walk through. Prices were fixed and clearly marked. On opening day, 23 shops filled the octagonal hall, selling ceramics, hardware, liquor, toys, tea, Western goods, coffee, medical equipment, sweets and calligraphy supplies. The market was trendy, too. A woman who grew up here in the 1930s remembered a machine about the size of a photo booth that sprayed perfume for a coin or two, so you could shop smelling wonderful. She also remembered the market's cold refrigerators, late-night delivery in the heat of summer, and the used book stands she loved to browse. Outside, a long row of stalls for daily goods, meat and fish grew up beside the main buildings. Each December, temporary sheds filled the open ground around the market until after New Year, and a great New Year banner of knotted straw hung in front of the octagon.

3. 03

   Red House: An Octagon Meets a Cross

   Red House: Earlier, in 2005, citizens voting for the 10 most characteristic buildings in Taipei placed Red House seventh.

   Now look closely at the architecture. The design is by the Japanese architect Kondo Juro, who worked for the Taiwan Governor-General's office and was skilled in Western building styles. Red House combines an octagonal hall, which served as the market entrance, with a cross-shaped building as its main body. Tourism authorities describe the pairing as a first in the history of both Eastern and Western architecture. The north and south squares on either side complete the ensemble. The eight-sided hall has facades of 8 meters each, built in the red-brick Western style that was fashionable in early colonial Taipei. Inside, the roof is held up by steel trusses fanning out like the ribs of an umbrella. There are 16 sets of them, joined by rivets, and a round opening lets light fall onto the ground floor. The footprint covers 412 square meters. The builders used reinforced concrete, which was an advanced method at the time. People love to explain the shape. The octagon is often linked to the eight trigrams, with the idea of people gathering from all eight directions, and some say the cross-and-octagon combination was meant to ward off evil. The respected architectural historian Li Chien-lang points out that no document records Kondo Juro having any such intention. So the symbolism is a lovely interpretation, but not a documented fact. What is certain is that Kondo never used this combination again in his other buildings.

4. 04

   Red House Reborn as a Cultural Stage

   Red House: Look up at the roof structure and see if the umbrella-rib trusses and the circle of light match what you pictured.

   After its years as a market, the building changed roles again and again. It became a storytelling hall, then a cinema, and in the postwar period the octagonal hall served as a performance venue. It was later listed as a city-designated historic site, in the Class Three category, in 1997. The modern chapter began in November 2007, when the Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs entrusted its operation to the Taipei Culture Foundation. The aim was to use creative and cultural activity to help revive Ximending itself. The effort won recognition in 2008, with an award for historic space revitalization at the Taipei Urban Landscape Awards. Earlier, in 2005, citizens voting for the 10 most characteristic buildings in Taipei placed Red House seventh. Today you can explore a lot under one roof. The octagonal hall holds a second-floor theater, a central exhibition area, a tea house and a shop of Taiwanese goods. The long arm of the cross houses workshops and exhibition space, and the other arm hosts the live music venue Riverside Live House. The north square hosts a creative market, and the south square has an open-air cafe bar, where outdoor bars welcome all patrons in what is described as Taipei's largest gay district. A fire damaged the area in 2016, but Red House carries on as a living stage for the neighborhood.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off from Red House

   Before you wander on, take one more slow look at the building from the square. Try to spot where the octagon ends and the cross begins, and imagine the first 23 shops opening their doors in 1908, with ceramics, tea and coffee set out for shoppers who had never seen fixed prices clearly marked like this. Step inside if you can. The ground floor has a small display on the building's history, along with a cafe and independent shops, and upstairs the theater hosts live performances. Look up at the roof structure and see if the umbrella-rib trusses and the circle of light match what you pictured. And as you walk out into Ximending's buzz, ask yourself how many lives one building can hold: market stall, storyteller's stage, movie screen, and now a workshop for new ideas. What will you find happening in its squares today?