Reinventing Space and Time: New Narratives Emerging in Taiwan

Through the lens of designer Yu Chih-Wei, several spaces in Taipei and its surroundings demonstrate how memory and modernity can intertwine to generate new stories.

First opened in 1935 under Japanese rule, Xinfu Market was once a central hub of daily life in Taipei, especially during the 1950s. As the city underwent rapid modernisation, the market gradually declined. In 2006, the horseshoe-shaped building was officially recognised as a heritage site and listed as a historical monument by the city. A new chapter then quietly began.

Now revived as a space for food, learning, and urban experimentation, the market has regained its place as a gathering point. At the heart of this reinvention is restaurateur Lee Cheng-Tao, who introduced the concept of a ‘daytime tavern’—a hybrid venue where visitors are free to enjoy dishes purchased from the neighbouring Dongsanshui Market. Straddling tradition and modernity, the space celebrates the rituals of everyday life while opening the door to new forms of conviviality.

‘In Taiwan, there’s a culture of shared banquets around round tables. By reusing old furniture and salvaged materials, I wanted to create a place where people could connect through food sourced directly from the market,’ explains Lee Cheng-Tao.

Once a drink is ordered and a seat secured, visitors can borrow tableware and browse the market stalls for ready-to-eat dishes. Garlic-soy marinated shellfish, sticky rice sausages, freshly steamed sweet potatoes, water caltrops, and shrimp noodles topped with generous handfuls of coriander offer a modest yet deeply local culinary experience.

The space retains the texture of its past—wooden beams, steamer baskets turned into lampshades, serving trays repurposed as tables. A retro atmosphere that appeals as much to locals as to curious travellers. There’s also a cooking school dedicated to traditional Taiwanese dishes and a cultural events area, reinforcing the venue’s role as a site of exchange.

As Yu Chih-Wei puts it, ‘The market—part of everyday life—is turned into a tavern. It’s an act of spatial reinvention.’ A place where memory is handed over to the future.

Nestled in the historic district of Dadaocheng, Sidoli Radio 小島裡 is a space conceived by Yu Chih-Wei and designer Fang Xu-Zhong. A cafe paired with a podcast recording studio, it offers a dual-layered experience: beneath its floor lies a former air-raid shelter from the Japanese colonial era, now home to a curated selection of cassette tapes and vinyl records, focused mainly on Taiwanese and international pop music.

‘‘Sidoli’ originates from a local mishearing of the English word ‘story,’ as pronounced by Japanese speakers in the past. Language changes with time and place. This is a small editorial studio where sound and content meet,’ explains Yu Chih-Wei.

Starting from the idea that sound is a more primal form of communication than speech, Sidoli Radio aims to tell the story of the city through sound. Recordings take place in emblematic locations across the neighbouring Dihua Street area, including century-old shops and temples. In doing so, the team is creating an audio archive of Taiwan’s living history, with plans to eventually expand the project into Japanese and Korean.

Listening to Taiwanese pop from the 1980s and ’90s on cassette, surrounded by the quiet hum of the past, offers a rare experience—one that feels gently detached from time and place.

About an hour’s drive from central Taipei, the city gives way to a gentler landscape, until the road leads to a discreet site tucked within dense, untamed greenery. Once home to a coal mine’s administrative offices, this secluded space now draws a creative-minded crowd, hosting brand receptions and a range of events. The area flourished from 1918 onwards, with mining operations employing as many as 3,000 workers at their peak. But in 2000, when all of Taiwan’s mines were officially closed, the site fell silent.

In June 2023, it was reborn as Mineless 無礦, following a renovation by the Natural Journey Architecture Team, led by acclaimed Taiwanese architect Divooe Zein. The group chose to preserve the wilderness that had taken over the ruins, carefully integrating elegance and functionality without erasing the site’s quiet decay.

‘An exhibition space in ruins, embraced by nature—a place to reconnect with one’s body and spirit,’ says Yu Chih-Wei, who considers the site a sanctuary. Wind moving through the leaves, dappled light filtering through the trees, and the hush of a forgotten mine all come together in an immersive, introspective experience—where one can encounter both the traces of a lost landscape and a newly attuned self.

‘A haven of calm between mountain and city, where contact with plants evokes the body’s memories,’ describes Yu Chih-Wei. Surrounding an old Japanese-style house, a dense and diverse array of vegetation thrives—over a hundred species, all endemic to Taiwan, including several endangered.

Originally used in the 1930s as a residence for the colonial government’s forestry department, the site later came under the care of the Forestry Bureau. In 2006, the area was designated a historic monument. The discovery of a Taiwania tree over 100 years old sparked local conservation efforts. In March 2024, a public-private partnership brought forth 0km 山物所, conceived as a gateway to experiencing Taiwanese nature within the urban environment.

The site encompasses six buildings, including a shop, a cafe, pop-up spaces, and an event hall, offering a variety of experiences. The coexistence of plants from different habitats and elevations creates a forest within the city—a suspended space beyond time and place, where visitors can almost forget they are in Taipei.