• Houses like people have their own life span. They would cause safety issues because of age, building materials, disasters, and etc. Therefore, old house would gradually fade into historical memories following changes in life style and social development.
• The age of an old house from being built to demolished differs due to many factors, but its life span would go through
• Built–>condensation–>developing–>peak–>aging–>abandoned–>collapsed and other processes.

 Photo taken at Lukang old street sustainable development strategy meeting presentation on February 10, 2018

• After the peak, if there are no plans for repurposing or regeneration, old house can only face death.

• Past life of old house, we can only trace its source；
  Present life of old house, we document, appreciate, cherish, and preserve；
  about future prospect of old house, what can we do ？
• Donate to the government for preservation, restoration, repurposing and regeneration.
• Apply to local government for old house revitalization subsidy.
• Changhua County Government old house repurposing subsidy application link https://goo.gl/bxpnSB
• Construction maintenance
• Ask experts for construction methods, materials which follow the old way, and keep the style of old house.
• Keep pattern and appearance, use colorful and new materials to show the luxurious big house.
• Tear down and rebuild, giving it new life.
• In the process of this historical house project, we discover that no matter which way we decide to deal with the old house, property rights is still the biggest obstacle. Donating to the government or repairing by themselves, members in big family have many voices. Therefore, historical houses in Hemei can be in these following situations --- abandoned or collapsed without care；After government registers the house into monitoring, no one lives in there；Restoration, inside or outside patterns of Sanheyuan or Siheyuan remain, entire appearance is luxurious；Razed to the ground and rebuild a big building, historical house becomes history.

• Another historical house catastrophe
  When we were busy organizing our project website, on February 15, 2018 Chinese New Year’s Eve, we heard that Hsinchu Taiyuan House was razed to the ground in half an hour. Another historical landmark disappeared. To our understanding, this cultural catastrophe also caused by property rights issue. Owner did not want it to be registered into monitoring, and struck first. We are not the owner, so we don’t have the right to judge. We cannot help but sighing an crying over it when media reported the incident.
  Hsinchu Taiyuan House incident is similar to Hemei Xie ancestral shrine disappearing overnight back then. They are both about property rights and interests. We were stunned by how quick they were demolished.
• Cannot see the real value but land value
  In cultural heritage preservation, the most helpless factor is the houses torn down by the owners themselves instead of other people. The man operating the excavator which torn down Hsinchu Taiyuan House said, “I could smell cypress wood when I was tearing it down. After that, I could only smell gas. When the offspring cannot see the real value but land value. Other than a little fine, what can we do？”
• (The above words quoted from newstalk web news  https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2018-02-15/114566)

• Return historical house to its glory
  Through the topic of this project, we not only want ourselves to learn and to introduce the surroundings, historical houses we grew up with, but also want to remind the local people or even the public of the love for historical houses. The government would be able to see the value of historical houses which helps local cultural heritage and preserves our collective memory. Our little efforts can grow into continuous power. We hope historical houses in danger can have sustainable development and return to its glory culturally.