Vision of repair

（The Old Chiayi Prison local hearing）
（picture source：photo by this team）

• Alternative 2: purchase black tiles from Germany

　　In order to follow "architectural forms," it was decided to follow the original architectural style. It was found that black tiles from Germany are quite similar to the old tiles from the Old ChiayiPrison, so it was decided to buy these black tiles directly. However, the number needed was very high. Even though purchases could save the time for baking the tiles, the needed funds greatly exceed the current budget.

 

Alternative	Time required	Costs	Principle followed
1、manually baked tiles	Long	Low	Original material
2、German baked tiles	Short	High	Architectural form

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Alternative 3: purchase concrete tiles

（The factory roof broken）
（picture source：photo by this team）

　　Considering time and money costs, the architects thought about alternatives 1 and 2 from various different perspectives. They wanted to lessen the burden of the roof beams, and wanted to make the decision based on the weight of tiles in the alternatives, but their weights were similar. This made the architects more indecisive; how exactly should they choose? Some suggested that both alternatives can be utilized in parallel, but this could be confusing… After many meetings and discussions, they decided to use the concrete tiles due to budget considerations.

　　

Beams at the jail – repair and prevention of rotten wood

（The factory roof broken）
（picture source：photo by this team）

　　Conditions：wood under the covered ridge at the factory have seriously been bent out of shape or even have cracks in them. Wood in other places have been eaten by termites due to wetness. Both situations lead to holes in the wood, and even make collapses likely.

 

• Alternative 1: reinforce the wood bracing

　　For wood under the covered ridge, since it was impossible to remove the damaged wood, the principle of "reversibility" was determined to apply in repair. Adding some wood at certain locations to create the shape of an H, would push the bent wood at the bending point outward, and this force comes from another piece of bent wood; the force that they exert on each other would push the covered

 

ridge upward.

 

• Alternative 2: exterminate the termites

　　It takes knowledge to defeatone's enemy – it will first be necessary to understand the termites before they can be destroyed. Termites like to eat wet soft wood; they do not eat dry hard wood. Therefore, if it is possible to keep wood dry, they would stop eating the wood. However, some wet and corroded wood cannot be fully removed, so the termites had to be directly driven away. Furthermore, all the earth in the prison was analyzed, and it was found that termite like to live in wet earth, and it tended to be acidic earth with a pH level between 2 to 5. Such acidic earth not only exists inside the prison, but the range is broad and covers the entire the Old Chiayi Prison dormitories. Later it was decided to alkalize earth of the entire prison, but it is more difficult to determine when to start work and when to work.

（The termite ate the cell's wood）
（picture source：photo by this team）

　　If only the prison area had termiteextermination, but not in the dormitories, they wouldslowly spread back again. However, it is impossible to conduct work over such a large scale, so in the end it still had to be conducted in different areas.

 

 

• Alternative 3: Maintain ventilation

（Overhead patrol path）
（picture source：photo by this team）

　　

　　After investigations, we understand that the prison was constructed on top of an underground water vein, and the water vein is quite close to the surface of the ground. Water vapor easily evaporates upward, and constitutes another reason for the wetness of the wood. Vapors from the water vein are absorbed by the wood, and joins forces with the rainwater to attack the center of the building.

　　 In some places, the wood directly comes into contact with the earth, and directly absorbs water in the ground. The termites also directly attack the wood. It was then decided that the height of the floor would be increased, and ventilation openings would be installed underneath, to effectively dispel the water vapor. Factories would also have good ventilation, so that water vapor could exit, and the termites would be driven out.

（Overhead patrol path）
（picture source：photo by this team）

　　

　　This shows how difficult it was to repair historical monuments. It not only costs a lot of time and money, but also requires detailed plans and long discussions. When the renovations of historical monument are complete, we must learn to cherish and maintain it together.

 

Note：Currently, the Old Chiayi Prison is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, and supervisory bodies include the Construction and Planning Agency (arranged by the Old Chiayi Prison), Council of Cultural Affairs (the legally established auditing body for national historical monuments), Public Construction Commission (the evaluation authority before works are commissioned). Those with primary responsibility of renovation are architects Chen Wen-long and Hsu Yu-chien from the Chen Wen-long Architectural Firm.

Sources：

• Researched and organized by this team

• Chen Wen-long Architectural Firm

• Planning and Research Report on Renovation and Reuse of the Old Chiayi Prison as A Historical Monument of Chiayi City.