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    Building Structural Types in Taiwan

    Eric Chyng-Maw Su1 

    1 Introduction

    Types of building structures in Taiwan on the basis of their architectural functions are

    reviewed. Structural systems and forms of these buildings, along with materials of

    construction are described. New directions in structural systems in Taiwan are also

    discussed.

    2 Types of Buildings

    In order to include the historical background of buildings. The types of building

    structures are categorized in terms of their architectural functions seems more appropriate fordiscussion. These building types are divided into three main categories

    (1) Residential Buildings

    (2) Commercial Buildings

    (3) School and Other Buildings

    It should be noted that the residential buildings in Taiwan by no means limited to

    dwelling use. They may mix with business activities to a certain degree due to the special

    zoning regulations in Taiwan. The commercial buildings, however, are restricted to business

    activities only. The government buildings built in early days are also discussed with

    residential buildings.

    3 Residential Buildings

    Taiwan was once ruled by Japan for 50 years (1895-1945). Before that period, some

     parts of the island was invaded by Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, and British people during the

    18th and 19th centuries. Some historical buildings built at the end of the 19th century by

    British are still in good condition. British consulate adjacent to Fort San Domingo (knows in

    Chinese as Red Body-Hair City) in Tamsui was built in 1891. It has now opened as a

    museum.Since Taiwan was ruled by Japan for half century, the Japanese influence was extensive

    and even today many of older people speak Japanese. Although the Japanese ruled with an

    iron fist, they were also efficient and contributed substantially to Taiwan′s economic

    development. The Japanese built roads, railroads, schools, and hospitals. Some modern

    architecture was developed during this period. The White House (Presidential Building) of

    Taiwan, for example, was designed and built by Japanese in 1910′s.The building form of the Presidential Building belongs to a Victorian architectural style.

    Other building examples having similar architectural style built in the same period are

     National Taiwan University Hospital and Taichung Railway Station.

    Most of the government buildings built in the 1920′s used brick walls extensively as

     bearing walls. The Greek columns were used mainly for decoration purpose. Reinforced

    concrete was used for the horizontal components. It is not known whether these building did

    any seismic design or not. However, they have been well preserved over these years.

    International Training Programs for Seismic Design of Building StructuresHosted by National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering

    Sponsored by Department of International Programs, National Science Council

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    1Chief Engineer, Federal Engineering Consultants, Inc. 

    The majority of the residential building built before 1945 were Japanese style houses,

    Chinese courtyard houses, or street houses (houses built right up to the front street). These

    houses were all single story, some of the street houses were 2- or 3-story houses. Basically,

    these houses were made of brick and wood, and most of them were demolished by now.In the period of 1945 to 1960, Japanese-style houses, Chinese courtyard houses, and

    street houses were built continuously with a decreasing rate. Japanese-style houses have

    tatami rooms. A tatami room consists of straw mats or quilts laid out on the floor. You

    need to take your shoes off before entering these places. Japanese-style houses usually were

     built from wood or brick. The pitched roofs were generally tile or slate.

    The courtyard houses are the most common dwelling type in the southeastern area of

    China. The traditional Taiwanese house follows the design seen in mainland China. A

    courtyard house or homestead is basically a one-story farmhouse , and is commonly built in a

    U shape with a courtyard in front of the main entrance. In crowded urban areas you might

    find a fully enclosed courtyard. Fig 1 shows a typical courtyard house plan. The courtyard

    house can usually accommodate three generations in a family.

    Fig.1 

    Traditional Taiwanese courtyard house

    The early courtyard houses were built from clay tile, and a bit of timber may be used.

    The clay tiles were either covered with faced bricks or white lime plaster. Modern courtyardhouses were built from brick finished with cement paste, and a bit of concrete was used.

    The pitched roofs were generally reddish-brown terra-cotta type tiles. Nowadays we can

    still see this type of houses in the rural area.

    Street houses built prior to 1945 were usually one or two-story separate house. After

    1945, these street houses started to build together and to form in a line. They had common

    walls between them. The construction materials of street houses were essentially the same

    as courtyard houses.

    In the period of 1961 to 1975, the building forms underwent gradual changes, new

    variety emerged to a style of its own. The most common type of residential building in this

     period was the four-story apartment building . It was a two-family attached house in eachfloor. Two families shared a stair which located in the middle of the duplex. Fig. 2 is a

    typical four-story duplex apartment building plan.

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    Fig.2  Typical duplex apartment plan

    The four-story apartment buildings are cast-in-place reinforced concrete structures with

     beam-and-column framing. The exterior walls are usually 12 cm thick RC walls, and

    interior walls are normally infilled brick walls. Generally, the building has one level of

     partial basement.

    Another common residential type building evolved from the previous period was the

    three-story street house ( tow tien). Each unit of a street houses had one owner, and all units

    were back-to-back connected together. The ground floor was usually a store, and the upperfloors were the living areas. Fig. 3 is a typical ground floor plan of a three-story ( tow tien)

    house cluster. The size of the cluster, or the number of house units may be expanded to 20,

    or even 30 units depending on the length of the street block.

    Fig.3  First floor plan of typical street houses

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    The width of each store is approximately 4.0 m to 4.5 m. There is an arcade or

     passageway in front of the store. The arcade is the major feature of the street house. It is

    the property of the individual store, and is also opened to public. The idea of the arcade is

    quite suitable for the subtropical island weather. The climate of island varies considerably.Winter is cool, occasionally chilly, and is characterized by heavy cloud cover and frequent

    drizzle. Summer rain comes in short, torrential thunder showers mostly during the afternoon.Summers are sticky and very hot. The arcade can ward off the rain and the heat. Most of

    the modern buildings provide an arcade on the ground floor for pedestrians may rooted in the

    street houses.

    The common wall of street house is a 24 cm thick brick wall. It is the full width of a

     brick. There are intermediate RC columns spaced approximately 4.0 m in the brick walls.

    The size of the RC column in the wall is 24×40 cm. Very light reinforcement, for example,4-#4 bars were usually provided in the column, The columns in the front arcade are usually

    a 30×30 cm square column.

    Fig.4 shows typical street house plans. The first floor is for the living room, kitchen

    with dining room, and the master bedroom. The second floor may be used for children′sroom, guest room, old parent′s room, and bathroom. The third floor is for the shrine place.

    The shrine room only takes the rear half of the third floor. The front half floor is usually an

    open balcony. This type of the street house is sometimes called two and a half (2½) story

    street house. The 2½-story  tow tien house is probably the most popular dwelling type in the

    70′s and the 80′s, especially in the midwest and southern areas of Taiwan.

    Fig.4  Typical three-story street house plan

    The structural system of the  tow tien house is basically a bearing wall system (Fig.3).

    Since the bearing brick walls are placed only in one direction (Y-direction). There is almost

    no lateral load resisting system in the other direction (X-direction), especially when there is

    only a single unit, or only a few units built together. The structure may survive a mild

    earthquake, but it may cause a severs damage or even collapse during a strong earthquake.

    Hundreds of tow tien houses failed during the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake may attribute to the

     poor structural system.

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    In the 1980′s, the volume of the four story apartment complex, and the tow tien houses

     became smaller. New housing variations were developed in the period of 1976 to 1990.

    This is the age of the high rise apartment, or the age of the elevator housing.

    One form of the new dwelling type was the cluster of housing. It is a high rise

    dwelling community, or a cluster of condominium buildings. The number of the buildings

    varied from two to ten or so depending on the size of the lot. The stories of a building are in

    the range of 7 to 16 stories. A 13-story condo, for example, may accommodate up to 50

    families. It is not uncommon for 200 families live in a cluster of housing. The ground

    floor of the building may be used for business depending whether it is allowed for business

    activities or not. A typical floor plan of the high rise condominium is shown in Fig.5. It is

    a four-family attached arrangement which was a popular choice in the late 80′s.

    Fig.5  Typical floor plan for four-family attached condominium

    Fig. 5 shows a four bedroom housing with a living room, dining room, and a kitchen

    attached. Two bathrooms are usually provided for the four bedrooms layout. Each family

    would usually have a front balcony, and a rear balcony. The living area is approximately

    120 m2  for a four bedroom family house. The area of each floor are in the range of 500 to

    600 m2. There are usually two elevators, and each elevator serves two families. The high

    rise condominiums built in the period of 1976 to 1990 were predominantly built from

    cast-in-place reinforced concrete. Fig.6 is a typical RC structure framing for the plan in

    Fig.5.

    Fig.6  Structure framing of Fig.5 plan

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    For a 16-story condo, a typical size of columns in the lower levels may be 100×100 cm,

    and a typical girder size could be 60×80 cm. A 15 cm thick two-way slab is a common floor

    system for RC buildings. The RC walls in the centered service core can be used as shear

    walls to assist moment frame resisting lateral loads. The design strength of concrete are

    usually in the range of 3000 to 4000 psi. High strength concrete was rarely used in that period.

    Another new dwelling type developed in the period of 1976 to 1990 was the public

    housing. It was also a housing cluster except it was built by the government rather than

     private developers. A majority of public housing were built from the existing military

    family houses. The existing military family houses were usually numerous of one-story

    houses. The building lot, however, was usually quite huge.

    Hundreds of old military family houses community had been rebuilt throughout the

    years. The volume of the newly built military housing community is normally larger than a

     private cluster of housing. It is not uncommon for a military housing community having 30

    high rise buildings in a community. Other public housings were built using the land owned by the government. The number of stories of public housing is similar to the private cluster

    of housing. The public housing structure, including the exterior walls and the common wall

     between adjacent family units, were usually built from cast-in-place reinforced concrete.

    The interior partition walls, however, were usually brick walls.

    Due to the new construction techniques, and the new construction materials, the structural

    forms in the late 80′s and 90′s had evolved into new varieties. The high rise residential buildings

     became taller. Twenty to thirty-story high rise condominiums sprouted throughout the urban

    areas. The construction materials no longer restricted to RC, steel structure (SS) construction,

    steel reinforced concrete (SRC) construction, or steel concrete (SC) construction became popular

    during the economy booming. To facilitate the high housing demands, the precast construction

    method was introduced. The precast construction first started from the precast wall panels, then

    extended to the precast slabs, and precast beams. They were no really fully precast buildings.

    Recently, however, a few fully precast residential buildings have been built. Fig.7 shows a

    typical floor plan with a SRC framing system.

    Fig.7  Typical floor plan of SRC structure

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    The cross section of a SRC column is usually a cruciform shape steel section as shown

    in Fig.8a. The box type section has also been used (Fig.8b). Reinforced concrete is used to

    enclose the steel section in a SRC construction. The reinforced concrete can enhance the

     performance of steel members. The SRC framing has the advantage of providing higher

    lateral stiffness. It is preferable to a slender building. Nevertheless, the construction time

    of a SRC building is usually longer than a RC or SS building.For a residential building structure which has a lack of lateral stiffness, a steel concrete

    (SC) construction may be considered as an alternative scheme. A SC girder is a steel beam

    encased in concrete with light reinforcement in concrete to hold the concrete, and to control

    the cracking. Unlike the SRC construction, the reinforcement in the SC construction is not

    for the strength purpose. They are essentially for the ease of construction and for the

    serviceability purpose. The column in SC construction is usually a cast-in-place SRC

    column.

    Fig.8  Typical cross section of SRC column

    The SC beam may either be a cast-in-place member or a precast member. Fig.9 shows

    a typical detail of a precast SC beam.

    Fig.9  Typical precast steel concrete (SC) beam 

    a Cross H Column b Box Column

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    The slab system in SC construction may also have a choice of cast-in-place on metal

    deck or precast slab construction. More often, a precast slab is usually the choice since it

    would match the precast SC beam.

    Fig.10 illustrates a typical precast slab system called KT truss slab system. A 60 mm

    thick precast concrete slab panel, embedded with wire mesh and small steel truss, is ready to

     be lifted to the floor slab location. The 120 mm thick pour-in-place topping is then casted on

    the top of the precast panel afterward.

    Fig.10 Typical precast slab (KT truss slab)

    Reinforced concrete structures, or structure has steel members encased in concrete is

    usually a favorable choice for a residential building since structural members are usually

    exposed in residential buildings. They are usually finished with paint at most. The livingroom is perhaps the only place covered with ceilings. Steel structure (SS) construction is

    usually used for office buildings or industrial buildings.

    The basement construction is predominantly RC construction. When a SS, SRC, or

    SC construction is adopted in the superstructure, then the first level in the basement (B1 Level)

    is usually the transferred floor for transferring the steel construction into the RC construction.

    A typical detail of a transferring column is shown in Fig.11. The steel column is terminated

    at the B1 floor while the reinforcing bars are continued through to the foundation.

    Fig.11 

    Typical transferring column in SRC construction

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    In the years of the 90′s, the country continued to pursue for a better quality of living.

    Developers started to pay attention to the environmental problems, and to seek a balance

    among air, land, and water on Earth. Thus, the idea of Green Earth buildings were created.

    After the Chi-Chi Earthquake in 1999, people began to have a renew look on the meaning of a

    safe dwelling. Structural or non-structural members can not be removed arbitrarily for

    remodeling purpose like many occupants usually did prior to the Chi-Chi Earthquake. Moreand more inhabitants have reached a consensus on the significance of living safety.

    4. Commercial Buildings

    In the period prior to 1970, the economy of the country mainly relied on agriculture.

    Only a few commercial buildings were built prior to that period, except for government

     building as described in the previous section. Taiwan Cement Co. Building, built in 1960,

    was one of the earliest commercial building example. The 1960 was approximately the year

    as nationwide industries started to rise. After a ten-year industrial growth, people had

    accumulated enough wealth, and were ready to welcome the consumer ′s age.

    During the years of 1970′s, the business of department stores start booming. Many ofthe first generation department stores were built during that period. Shin Kong Department

    Store, Far Eastern Department Store, Today Department Store, First Department Store in

    Simen(West Gate)area were all opened in the early 70′s. Since the number of stories of thedepartment store are usually 10 stories or so, thus a RC structure was a favorable choice for

    these department stores.

    Another type of commercial buildings surged during the department store prosperous

     period was the restaurant / hotel building. Ambassador Hotel, Leofoo Hotel, and Taipei

    Hilton were all built in the early 70′s. The common structural features of department stores

    and restaurants compared to residential buildings are

    (1) higher design live load due to public use

    (2) deep basement excavation due to parking demand

    (3) large column distance due to space demand

    (4) large floor height due to space demand

     New structural systems and methods of the construction were introduced because the

    higher design demands. Taiwan Cement Co. Building built in 1960 was a milestone of RC

     building structure. It was a seven-story RC building with one level of basement. Raft

    foundation was first used in this building. Since there were two levels of parking within one basement floor, flat slab was used to increase the floor clearance , and to reduce the

    excavation depth. Taipei Hilton was probably the first high-rise building(20F) to use steel

    construction(1973). Century Hotel (1973) was the first building to use rolled steel section

    for the bracing system during the basement excavation. China International Commercial

    Bank(1975) was the first building to use slurry wall for basement retaining walls. It wasalso the first building to use top-down construction to facilitate the construction speed. Fig.

    12 is a conceptual sketch of the top-down construction. To assist the progress of the

    construction schedule, the glass curtain wall and the precast panel wall were brought into the

    market at the end of 70′s. Headquarter of the First Bank(22F), and the Taipower

    Building(26F) were the first two buildings to use precast walls at that time. Light partition

    wall such as gypsum stud wall was also adopted by the market during that period of time.

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    Fig.12  Conceptual sketch of top-down construction

    In order to satisfy higher strength demand of RC members, local plants started to

    manufacture 60 ksi reinforcing steel. Also, to resolve the deflection problem due to the large

    span, prestressed steel was brought into building construction in the middle of 70′s.

    The 26-story Taipower Building, completed in 1982, was the first high-rise building to

    exceed 100 m height, with a height of 114.5 m. The structure system was a ductile steel

    moment resisting frame above the third floor. The first two levels and the basement used

    SRC construction.Fig. 13 shows the typical floor plan of the Taipower Building. This kind of plan is

    quite common for an office building. Large open space often resulted in a long span

    (approximately 13 m in this case) steel framing. Gypsum board partition walls were used for

    the interior walls to reduce the building weight, and to speed up the construction.

    Fig.13  Typical floor plan of Taipower building

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    Steel structural system was predominantly moment-resisting frame(MRF) at the beginning

    of high-rise steel construction in the middle of 1970′s. Unlike MRF in the US where wideflange columns are normally being used, a box sections are commonly used for steel columns

    in Taiwan. The difference came from the design practice. The MRF in the US are

    normally independent in each direction, only a few frames are used as a MRF. While all the

    frames are MRF in local practice.Some new systems were brought into the steel construction in the early 1980′s. One of

    the new structural systems was the eccentrically braced frame(EBF). The EBF has the

    advantages of both MRF and CBF(concentrically braced frame).

    The braced frames provide the required stiffness and the strength during a mild

    earthquake. The shear link(″ e″ in Fig. 14) exists between eccentrically braces(EB), or

     between EB and column, would then serve as a fuse to dissipate the earthquake input energy

    during a strong earthquake.

    Fig.14  Typical EBF frames

    The EBF system is especially effective for a building more than 30-story high. Many

    30-to 50-story commercial buildings built in early 1990′s had used the EBF. For example,

    the 85-story TC tower in Kaohsiung, completed in the mid 1990′s used EBF system combinedwith MRF system.

    Since the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, many new moment connection designs have

     been developed for seismic resistant steel frames.. Among these is the Reduced Beam

    Section(RBS) moment connection, also known as the dogbone connection[1]. The RBS

    connection has shown good performance in laboratory testing and is being used on a number

    of building construction projects. The 47-story Taichung Tower was one of the early

    example to use RBS moment connection. Fig. 15 illustrates a radius cut RBS connection.

    Fig.15  Radius cut RBS moment connection

    (a) (b) (c)

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    Research data have shown that the RBS connection can develop at least 3% plastic

    rotation. Nonetheless, ″ Pre-Northridge″  moment connections can only develop on the orderof 1% plastic rotation or better. Other variation of RBS connection, by trimming the beam

    flanges according to the moments gradient has also been used on many building

     projects(Fig.16b). The 101-story Taipei Financial Center currently under construction has

    used RBS connection(Fig. 16b) for seismic resistant frames.

    Fig.16  Various forms of RBS moment connection

    The idea of the RBS connection is to move the plastic hinge away from the highly

    stressed column face, and to enhance the rotational capacity of the moment connection. A

    variety of reduced beam section had been developed either by drilling holes through the

    flanges, by widening the beam flanges at column face, or by adding wing plates to the beam

    flanges at column face. The other way to alleviate the stress concentration at the column

    face is to strengthen the joint by either welding the beam web to the column, or by adding acover plate to the beam flanges. In general, both the strengthening (cover plates) and

    weakening(drilling holes) schemes have relocated the plastic hinge away from the

     beam-to-column junctures[2]. Fig. 17 illustrates some of these moment connection types.

    Fig.17  Typical modified moment connections

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    The seismic provisions of the AISC Code specifies that one needs to demonstrate the

    connection can withstand an inelastic rotation of at least 0.03 radians(3 percent), in order to

    qualify as a Special Moment Frames(SMF) [3]. In this regard, the RBS moment connection

    is probably a favorable choice for the qualification of a SMF.

    The design philosophy of developing ductility-enhanced members or connections may

    not be adequate from the building performance point of view. Since a more ductile framemeans more deformation of the frame, and it would result in more damage of nonstructural

    elements in the buildings. One way to achieve a better performance of building is to reduce

    the ductility demands imposed on structural elements[2]. Increase the damping of a

    structural framing is a simple way of reducing the ductility demands of structural elements.

    Among these is the steel triangular-plate added damping and stiffness(TADAS) energy

    dissipation device. It consists of several triangular plates welded to a common base plate as

    shown in Fig.18. This device has been used in the newly opened Core Pacific Shopping City

    in Taipei.

    Fig.18  Schematics of a TADAS device

    As the design trend moves toward the performance-based design in the 1990′s, seismic

    isolation and energy dissipation systems became viable design strategies for seismic resistant

     buildings. These ststems include devices that enhance building performance primarily by

    modifying building response characteristics[5, 6].

    Typical isolation systems reduce forces transmitted to the superstructure by lengthening

    the period of the building and adding certain amount of damping. Passive energy dissipation

    devices add damping (and sometimes stiffness) to the buildings structure. A wide variety of

     passive energy dissipation devices are available, including fluid viscous dampers(FVD),

    viscoelastic materials (VE dampers), and hysteretic devices. Under favorable conditions,

    energy dissipation devices would not only reduce drift of the structure, but also reduce force

    in the structure [6].

    The strategy of selecting the best device to achieve the performance level specified by

    the owner is sometimes a mind-boggling process for engineers. Table 1 provides some

    simple guidance on the Performance Levels for which isolation and energy dissipationsystems should be considered as possible design strategies for seismic design of buildings.

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    A few buildings constructed with ductile bracing, also known as unbonded brace from(UBF)

    system, are currently also under construction. Typical UBF systems can dissipate large

    amount of the input earthquake energy through hysteretic yielding of low-yield strength steel

     bracings. Fig. 20 illustrates a typical UBF frame elevation.

    The advent of seismic isolation, and energy dissipation systems has moved the design

     philosophy from ductility-based toward performance-based design. As the researcherscontinue to pursue a better performance of building structures, other special seismic

    systems-includng active control, hybrid combinations of active and passive energy devices,

    and liquid dampers-are being developed and may provide practical solutions in the near future.

    It would be a new era and challenge for the structural engineers.

    Fig.20  Typical UBF system

    In summary, changes of the structure types in the last 30 years can be tabulated as

    shown in Table 2.

    Table 2 Changes of structure types in last 30 years

    Years Number of Story Material and System

    1970′s 10F• RC

    • MRF, Shear wall

    1980′s 20F• RC, SS , SC, SRC

    • MRF, Shear Wall

    1990′  > 30F

    • RC, SS, SRC

    • Precast

    • SMRF, EBF, Shear Wall

    • Base Isolation

    • Energy Dissipation

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    5 School and Other Buildings

    School buildings play an important role in public buildings as far as the number of

     buildings, and the extent of the area are concerned. Unlike commercial or residential

     buildings, school buildings are usually low-rise concrete building, and the typical plan layout

    for elementary or the middle school classrooms is usually a long, narrow plan. Fig. 21 is atypical classroom plan of an elementary school or a middle school building.

    Fig.21  Typical classroom plan of elementary and middle school

    The common wall between the classrooms is usually made of brick. There are more

    walls in Y-direction than in X-direction, and there is a 3.0 m overhanging slab along the

    corridor. The long overhung or cantilevered slab becomes vulnerable to an earthquake

    loading which contains significant vertical components like the Chi-Chi Earthquake in 1999.

    The window walls on both sides of the classroom are even more detrimental to anearthquake loading(Fig. 22). The short concrete or brick wall built against column will

    result in a so call ″ short-column″  phenomenon, and cause a brittle shear failure of the column.

    This was one of the main reasons that many school buildings failed during the Chi-Chi

    Earthquake.

    Fig.22  Typical short-column elevation in school classroom

    To avoid a ″ short-column″  effect, one way is to separate the short wall from the columnwith a gap, and fill the gap with flexible filler materials. For existing short walls, the best

    way is to create a saw-cut joint between the short walls and the column.

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    Buildings in the university contain a variety forms, and are often a good place for an

    architect to express his or her design talent. The libraries, student unions, and other

    institutional buildings all have different space and loading requirements, thus results in

    various forms. Like elementary school or middle school buildings, the buildings in

    universities are usually not tall buildings, and concrete structure is the most common

    construction material for buildings in the university. For place having long spans such as performing art centers or sports stadiums, prestressed girders, or steel girders may be used.

    One of the striking features of local buildings is the temples. There are probably over

    5000 temples in Taiwan, ranging in size from a back-alley hut to a monumental, multistoryed

    structure that wound make a European cathedral look like a dwarf. The temple structures are

     predominantly concrete structure, and sometimes built with a bit timber. Taoist temple roofs

    are complicated detailed with colorful figures such as dragons and phoenix. Lungshan

    Temple and Hsingtiengon Temple are two of the most popular temples in Taipei. By contrast,

    Buddhist temples are relatively sedate. Buddhist pagoda is essentially a building to house

    the ashes of the deceased.

    6 Closing Remarks

    The building structure types of Taiwan inherited Japanese style and Chinese style in the

    early stage, and followed the western types after the industrialization of the country in 1970′s.

    The unique tow tien street houses are still popular in some area, and temples are pervasive in

    the rural area.

    Concrete (RC) buildings with ceramic tiles façade are still the most popular building

    structure type for residential buildings. The SRC, SC, and precast constructions are other

    variation of residential buildings. The RC and SS constructions are usually the favorable

    choice of an office building.

    During the last decade, concern for the effects of buildings on people became deeper.More stringent regulations for fire safety were set forth. Requirements were established that

     prevented construction of a building until its full environmental impact could be assessed.

    Furthermore, the need for energy conservation in building operation to conserve natural

    resources became apparent. These requirements placed additional constraints on building

    design. Both design and construction became even more complex.

    As the design philosophy has gradually been shifting from ductility-based to

     performance-based design, the isolation systems and energy dissipation systems may become

    a more favorable choice for building design. We might say that the building structural

    engineering has become a combination of art and science, and there would always be

    challenges ahead for the Structural Engineers.

    7 References

    1. MD Engelhardt, ″ Design Recommedations for Radius Cut Reduced Beam Section

    Moment Connections″   Workshop on Design Technologies of Earthquake-Resistant

    Moment-Resisting Connections in Steel Buildings, Taipei, May 1999.

    2. KC Tsai, ″ Seismic Energy Dissipation in Steel Frame Buildings″ , Asia-Pacific

    Workshop on Seismic Design & Retrofit of Structures, Taipei, Aug. 1998.

    3. ″ Seismic Provisions for Structural Steel Buildings″ , AISC, April 1997.

    4. SJ Chen, ″ Ductile Steel Beam-to-Column Connections″ , Asia-Pacific Workshop onSeismic Design & Retrofit of Structures, Taipei, Aug. 1998.

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