Taipei City Government

Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-Je hosted the groundbreaking ceremony of Jiuzong Public Housing in Neihu District on February 24. He emphasized that Neihu’s traffic bottleneck must be resolved through the construction of the East Section of Taipei Metro Circular Line and a sufficient number of public housing projects in adjusting Neihu’s urban planning measures.

According to Ko, public housing is designed to resolve the issue of accommodation, but it has been given more responsibilities by the Taipei City Government as it must also conform to urban aesthetics in order to build more aesthetically pleasing public housings that are conducive for improving Taipei’s cityscape. The smart city industry is also a testing ground; therefore, it is hoped that the construction of 50,000 public housing units will facilitate developments in Taiwan’s smart building industry. Ko pointed out that the location of the Jiuzong Public Housing bears special significance because he has said repeatedly that Neihu does not have traffic-related issues but rather urban planning problems. With 150,000 commuters coming and leaving Neihu every day through limited channels, the long-term solution is to build enough public housing here complemented by the construction of the East Section of the MRT Circular Line. Although none of these solutions can be accomplished overnight, at the very least the city government can implement a course of action to progressively mitigate Neihu’s urban planning problems after the general direction is confirmed.

The mayor indicated that he believes the East Section of the MRT Circular Line will foster public housing development and in turn readjust the traffic pattern in Neihu on an ongoing basis to improve traffic conditions. With public housing still being constructed, 11,000 units should be available already; he has instructed the Department of Urban Development not to rush the construction process and maintain a pace of about 10,000 units under construction at all times in a bid to achieve the ultimate goal of 50,000 public housing units. The public housing project consists of 3 basement floors and 9 floors aboveground, costing NT$528 million. From now, each public housing project that breaks ground will only be completed in the next mayor’s term; with approximately 8 to 12 public housing projects in the pipeline this year, the city government will continue to make sure they are built. Public housing requires the spirit of long-term planning and should therefore not be rushed for the sake of obtaining credit. Instead, a steady approach should be adopted; for example, solving traffic problems in Neihu is a long-term battle that will probably last a decade until the East Section of MRT Circular Line is completed. Ko commented that he likes to quote Chiang Ching-Kuo’s famous words that “if you don’t do it now, you will regret it later.” Consequently, both the East Section of MRT Circular Line and public housing must be developed in order to improve the traffic situation. He expressed that the project site is situated in a fantastic location as he came across a large supermarket and TV station earlier. TV station employees can stay here, where floors 1 through to 3 consist of a public area, kindergarten, community home, and Department of Environmental Protection’s offices. It is hoped that the public areas on lower floors will help to improve the building’s relations with the local community.

Ko noted that previous public housing projects tend to become NIMBY facilities because there is absolutely no benefit for local residents. Nevertheless, if they are equipped with fringe benefits such as kindergartens or community activity centers, citizens will be more willing to accept public housing. Most importantly, this building has obtained 4 major labels including smart building, green building, accessibility, and earthquake resistance; on top of that, smart green building technologies with considerations such as energy conservation, safety, disaster prevention, health and comfort in mind have been introduced to Taipei City’s modern public housing projects, and even many cutting edge information and communications technologies (ICT) are incorporated. Last but not least, he wishes to thank the contractors for working hand in hand with the city government to facilitate the successful ground opening and completion of the project.