The Return of the luxurious mansion -- Taipei Guest House

The Repair and Recondition Records of Taipei Guest House

Period	Records
1912 Reform of the interior arrangement and structure.	Ten years after its completion, the wooden building was partly eaten away by termites. The brand new steel structure and the Baroque design were very rare in Taiwan at that time. Interior arrangement was redesigned as well, the receiving room was enlarged. Basically, this was the first and the largest repair of Taipei Guest House.
1920 Built the enclosure wall and the daily residence for? the governor	The daily residence for the governor was built next to the mansion in this period; the two buildings are connected with a gallery. And the enclosure wall we see now was build in the same time.
1922 Reform the stable into garage.	The stable was rebuilt to be the garage, for the crown prince’s stay in the Guest House in 1923. The garage is a concrete and steel bar architecture and its roof is differ from all other buildings in Taipei Guest House.
1926 Reform the Governor’s daily residence.	The termites had been always the greatest problem of Taipei Guest House, including the main building (the mansion), and other buildings in it. In this period, the problem bothered the governor’s daily residence nest to the mansion, too. However, this problem would not be solved completely until the latest repair.
1980 Remade the copper cover around the roof.	The copper cover around the roof of Taipei Guest House was remade in1980.
1992 Renew the rock roof tiles.	The original rock made roof tiles were all torn down and replace with a new made ones. But the new ones are very different than the original ones, and this made the mansion look different ever since. The decision was a wrong policy that didn’t match the idea of keeping the monument as it was.
Planting cypresses in the garden (time, unknown)	According to the documents in the Japanese occupation, there were no cypresses planted on the lawn and close to the pond. But the cypresses make the view from the mansion covered.
Rebuild the enclosure wall (time, unknown)	The old pictures show that the original enclosure wall was hollowed and lower than the current one, which is not hollowed and too tall for people to see in from outside the wall.
Painting the enclosure wall. (time, unknown)	The current enclosure wall was painted with thick painting that covers
本圖表由「徐裕健建築師事務所」提供

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Process of repair

1.Washed out the airtight painting with high-tech skill to reappear the mansion’s wall.

2.Patched up the interior wall after washed and painted gold-color as the base of the wall.

3.Finished the repair of the wall after cleaning it.

4.Strengthen the building with the mixed and cooked paste of lime, seaweed, and glutinous rice. This was the old Asian formula used in building houses before using concrete, and the two function the same purpose.

5.To reappear the corroded doors and windows by removing the paint.

6.Increasing the height of the floor by putting wooden grids under the floor.

7.Removed the marble floor to uncover the original one, and replaced it with granite.

8.Cleaned the viscose on the floor of the first floor, and then used concrete to upper the base before repair the floor with tiles.

9.Used mortar to decorate the ceiling to make the inner space looked bigger and splendid. This is a common skill in decorating classical style spaces.

10.Fastened steel net between the first and second floor to strengthen the building.

11.Removed the tar on the roof and placed wood bars under it.

12.Replaced the iron cover on the roof with copper one.

13.Waterproofed the turrets and paved iron slabs in the turrets.