Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 3, No. 1 (June 2016), 41-44

Development of Type Control Guidelines for the Old Town District of Hsinchu City
Yi-Yin Tsai

Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chung Hua University, No. 707, Sec. 2, Wufu Rd., Hsinchu, Taiwan
E-mail: yiyint@gmail.com
www.chu.edu.tw

Abstract
The concept of “Building Type Control” was employed to establish hierarchical design guidelines for the urban
regeneration process. GIS was used to manage and map environmental database as visual reference tool. Existingbuilding regulations and urban design policies were reviewed to set out limitation and development vision for thestudy district, type control zones were set out with control design guidelines respectively to serve as a sufficientreference tool to assist design decision making in the urban regeneration process.
Keywords: Type Control, Design Guideline, Urban Regeneration, Urban Design

Addressing urban regeneration in an old town district of
a compact urban city is a complex task, which involves
consideration of many interconnected issues.
Consequently, the subject of urban regeneration orsustainable urban development with regard to theexisting building fabric requires a systematic controllinghierarchies and urban design guidelines to be employed

more sufficiently in the design process in fulfillingthe vision and requirements of future urban
development.

understanding the historical development of the site, thecultural landscape features and changes over years; it
was clear that a set of sufficient design guidelines orregulations is necessary to ensure the quality of urban
environment through the development process. The
study attempts to employ the concept of “type control”
to formulate a set of rules in regulating features of eachindividual building, as well as the overall appearance ofbuilding streetscape. The concept of “typology” wasused to identify the development types of various
building district to set the zoning types initially. The
type control design guidelines were set out accordingly.

1.1. Research Subject

2. Method

1. Introduction

This research selected the old town district of Hsinchu
City to be the research subject. Documentation of thesubject background data was carried out first with onsite interviews to collect basic information of theresearcharea’sexistingcondition.
Through2.1. Typology
According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionaryof Current English, the word “Typology” is explained asto distinguish between different types of type system

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Yi-Yin Tsai[1]. In the field of architectural discourse, in terms oftypology, it is defined as a way of understanding andthinking. In the eighteenth century, building typology isrecognized as the method of a continuous and uniform
system for the classification process for architecturalbuilding. According to M. Bandini [2], the concept oftypology can be summarized as three aspects: the first
one to be the method of city reading which emphasizes
the integrated nature of the city and explore themorphology of city with the building types; the second
aspect is concerned with the cultural perspective
represented by G. Argan which addresses urban
typology as a method consists of various city
architectural styles; the third aspect, directed byQuatremere de Quincy and represented by O. M. Ungers
and others, defines typology as the production tool andproduction theory of architecture.
In terms of research, Johnson and Christensen [3]defined this concept as a classification system that split
something into a number of different types or kinds.
Grix [4] refers to the concept as dividing the study
objects into many types, where the attributes of each of
the type are mutually exclusive to each other but
together as a exhaustive system. Since one type only
requires one property; typology can be used in a varietyof variables under various circumstances. In typology, a
special order can be derived based on the research
purpose and the research phenomena, and this order isable to set limitation on the methods of datainterpretation. Thus, a hierarchical type control design
guidelines could be set out for the regeneration process.

2.3. Policy Review

2.2. GIS Data Input

3.1. Type Control Guidelines

Employing the type model structure developed throughliterature review, GIS software was used to construct
the façade feature database to illustrate the existingbuilding condition of the study subject. Different colors
were used to represent different “sub-type” or “sub-typeitem” of the data information. An example of the GIS
mapping of a sub-type feature is shown in Figure 1.

The old town district of Hsinchu City serves as theurban development center of the city, it hosts most of
the daily activities of the local people as well as themajor tourist attractions. It has a mixture of historicaland modern buildings, as well as a mixture of residential,commercial, civic, religious and governmental building
functions. Thus, four type control zones were set out asfollowing:(1) District I: Urban Commercial & Historical Fringe
Zone.
District I is the fringe of the historical street zone andthe newly urban commercial development area. TheFigure 1. GIS mapping of the “Style” sub-type feature
under the “Basic Element” sub-type of the existingbuilding fabric condition of the study subject.

Existing government regulation and policy addressing
topic of urban regeneration was first reviewed andsummarized to formulate the development vision for theresearch subject in constructing the type control
guidelines. Both the land-use zoning control regulations,and the urban design regulations of the three major cityin Taiwan, the Hsinchu City, the Taichung City and theTainan City, were reviewed to understand the basic
control regulation each city used in regulating andcontrolling the appearance of building design indifferent urban district in order to establish a set of typecontrol guideline for various urban district.
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Development of Type Control

This research established a systematic type control
guidelines with the concept of typology to integratecity’s urban development plan with local building
regulations. The results could serve as a future reference
for Hsinchu City government as design guidelines for
specific regional planning policy to maintain thecharacteristic of local building style in the process ofurban regeneration. In addition, the urban environmental
analysis of this research could serve as a reference for

Table 1. Type Control Guidelines for District I-IV
Four Type Control Zones

Main
Type

Sub-Type /Type Item

DistrictI

Basic Elements

StyleIIIII
IV

Geometryand
ShapeI
III
IIIV

Geometry Vocabulary

4. Conclusions

future researches in the field of environmental
management when dealing with both historical andmodern urban district.

Envelope & Volume

district is closed to the main urban activity traffic roadand serves as a landmark for the newly developed area.
Creating new city image and connecting pedestrian
activities are the key considerations for setting up
control guidelines for the district.
(2) District II: Historical Street Zone.
This district is a historical street control zone; the oldbuildings were set to be preserved and maintained
according to its original historical appearance. The main
control guidelines were set to emphasize on the building
envelope and façade appearance type controls.
(3) District III: Art & Culture Activity Zone.
District III is designated to be the art and culture activity
control zone within the old town area of Hsinchu City as
the cultural art museum is located at the center of thedistrict. Since the cultural art museum has just been
listed as the City’s historical building, and the museum
was designed to host modern exhibition; the district wasset to consider both the idea of historical preservation as
well as future modern developments.
(4) District IV: Monumental & Local Business Zone.
Type IV district is classified as monumental and local
business zone due to several important existingbuildings within the periphery area; including the main
religious temple, the Cheng Huang Temple, the city’scentral vegetable market, and the traditional shopping
center which are all in need to be refurbished andpreserved under city’s urban renewal project. The local
restaurant business is also very active within this district,which serves as important tourist attraction and local
food cultural identity. Design guidelines for this district
were set to target at preservation and maintenance of thelocal identity and the sense of place.

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BuildingBaseIIIIIIIV

RooftopI
IIIII
IV

Control Guidelines
Western style with localmaterial.
Traditional Chinese arcadestyle.
Modern style
Traditional Chinesemonumental style
No limitation, but maintain theoverall sense of volume of thestreetscape.
Arch style arcade with straightline distributed on the building
elevation.
Building shapes shall consider
the Taiwanese traditional
temple style.
Building’s ground level shallreserve pedestrian space.
Encourage the usage ofdifferent materials, wall
treatments and volumevariations.
Rooftop machinery andequipment should be shelteredand should use similarmaterial as building itself withappropriate design.

Yi-Yin TsaiIIColor&Materi
alIII

Building Height & Skyline

Composition StyleIVOpeningRatio
FunctionConfigurati
onAppearance

IIIIII
IVIIIIII
IVIIIIIIIV
I
IIIII
IV

LandmarkI
IIIV
III

Building’s front façade color
could be and distinctive.
Building identity and harmonyof the overall streetscapeshould be emphasized.
Building’s front façade color
should mainly be brick red orstone gray.
Building materials shouldhave a traditional material
texture appearance, or use
facade tile, clear-finishedbrick, pebble stones or othersimilar materials.
Building’s main façadematerial shall consider its
permanence andsuitability to the local
climate conditions.
The building volume color
shall primarily be silvery
white, light gray or otherlight color tones.
Composition of various
color tones and shades
could be used.

LengthRatio

I

Area Ratio

IIIIIIV

Size
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Geometry Vocabulary

Envelope & VolumeI

Balcony or extruded parts ofthe building shall not exceed
the building line and shall not
exceed more than 50 cm of theexternal walls.

Exterior Attachment

ElevationIIIIII
IVSetback & Building Line

Table 1. (Continued)

Color
LocationStyleCanopyAdditionalEquipment

IIIIIIIVIIVIIIII
IIIIII
IV

Arcade’s ground level shouldalign with the sidewalk, in thecase of no sidewalk, it should
be 10-20 cm higher than the
traffic road with no stairs and1/40 slope ratio.
Setback arcade without
overhead coverage shouldincorporate appropriate
plantation and greenery
Pedestrian sidewalk width
shall not be less than 2.5 m.
Arcade height shall not be lessthan 3 m.
Building façade facing streetless than 7 m should setback at
least 0.5m from the buildingline.
Vertical length shall not be
more than 6 m.
Harmony with the frontelevation.
The lower part should not beless than 3m from the ground.
Front-facing style.
Side-facing style.
Rain coverage and sun
shading should not be lessthan 6 m.
Should not be placed on thefront façade.

30-60%
Residential and commercial
mixed use.
Commercial use
Align with the street.
Uniform skyline with proper
setback arcade area.
High-rise building withlandmark image.
Mix of building heights withlocal recognition.
Street corners.
Local temple.
Local civic building.

Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank The Ministry of Scienceand Technology of Taiwan financially supporting thisresearch under the Contract No. NSC 102-2410-H-216010.
References
1. A. S. Hornby, S. Wehmeier, Oxford advanced learner’s
dictionary of current English. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000.
2. B. Micha, Typology as a Form of Convention, AA Files,
6, pp. 73-82, 1984.
3. B. Johnson, and L. Christensen, Educational research,Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 3rd ed., 2008.
4. J. Grix, The foundations of research, 2008.

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