KINMENology- A Paradoxical Casino as a Cultural Condenser by Peng (AMBER) Lee

Fact. 1

Kinmen, where traditional Southern-East-Chinese heritages had passed down for centuries then mingled with an abundance of colonial and military architecture, is unique in its preserved antiquity, but has been slow in economy and modernity. 

FactT. 2

Integrated Resorts (IR) is considered a profitable and efficient way in developing tourism despite other economical, social and cultural effects.

Fact.1 + Fact.2 = The Referendum 2017

Integrated Resort development on offshore islands has been a controversial argument in Taiwan, especially in Kinmen, with the luxurious, consuming, and chaotic image of casinos contradicting everything about this little island. On October 28th, 2017, less than 10% voted for a “YES” out of the eligible 24% voters.

In response to the early controversial referendum, I carried out my undergraduate thesis project reforming traditional residential typologies to an integrated resort and casino program. The attempt was to perceive a casino typology as a vernacular cultural condenser by re-interpreting historical collective memories into contemporary spatial experience. 

 To reduce the disparity between these two opposite social ethos, research on traditional architectural components and human activities had led to the similarity where “Fengshui,” known as Chinese geomancy, plays a vital role in the basis of villages and in Asian gambling. In this sense, specific orders and hierarchical relationship of objects and space in the program were studied from the architectural form in the village, such as roof heights, curvature, brick patterns, and compositions of units within a single house.

 The process carried on with the observation, description, comparison and analogy in spatial experience and atmosphere in traditional houses and villages and their architectural reformation to Asian resorts, casinos and Chinese gamble activities.