Exploring the Transformation in the ‘Spirit of Place’ by Considering the Changed and Unchanged Defensive Spaces of Settlements: A Case Study of the Wugoushui Hakka Settlement

Yanfeng He, Chie-Peng Chen, Rung-Jiun Chou, Haifeng Luo and Jing-Shoung Hou
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Yanfeng He: Ph. D. Program in Design, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan City 32023, Taiwan
Chie-Peng Chen: Department of Interior Design, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan 32023, Taiwan
Rung-Jiun Chou: Department of Landscape Architecture, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan 32023, Taiwan
Haifeng Luo: School of Cultural Resources, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei 11201, Taiwan
Jing-Shoung Hou: School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300384, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-23

Abstract: Over generations, economic development has accelerated traditional settlements in Taiwan while losing traditional culture. In Hakka villages, this is manifested in the changes in defensive spaces, the ‘spirit of place,’ and land use. Although some progress has been made through research into related issues, a correlated view has been missing. To explore the connection between the ‘spirit of place’ and defensive spaces in Wugoushui, a traditional representative settlement in Taiwan, this paper probes three questions: What are the changes in defensive spaces? What are the changes in the spirit of place? What are the connections between them? Taking the sixteen criteria of secure defensive space as the theoretical foundation, through more than a year of structured observations and in-depth interviews with ten representative residents, and based on context analysis and site analysis of the information collected, this paper has concluded that, although the actual functionality of Wugoushui settlement’s spiritual, behavioural, and physical defences have disappeared, cultural characteristics related to the settlement traditions, including religious beliefs, trust, sense of belonging, street network, nodes, institutions, territory, and social networks, constitute a concrete manifestation of the defensive space and the spirit of place as of today. This research contributes to developing a theory of the relevance of the spirit of place to the defensive space of settlements from a sustainability perspective and improving the cultural preservation and land management of traditional settlements.

Keywords: Fengshui landscape; crime prevention; safety environment; place identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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