Tucked away from the main street and up through a narrow lane, this newly refurbished culture center is of Xingtian Temple is located in Beitou, Taipei City - A recent project by Y.D. Architects.
The new culture center is hidden away from the entrance to the temple, and sits up on a stacked hillside landscape beside the mountain trail. The first light at sunrise casts mesmerising long shadows across the layered landscape, softly echoing with the long horizontal architectural form and its stone-clad facade.
The central space of the building has a circular-roofed open courtyard that connects between the rooftop and basement level, allowing natural light and ventilation to all levels and creating an interesting connection between internal and external spaces horizontally and vertically.
This refurbished culture center carefully kept its connection with its past by leaving its original columns exposed in its interiors, retaining the form of its open courtyard, and maintained its relationship to the stone retaining walls.