The Red House: How a Market Became the Cultural Living Room of Ximending

30-Second Overview: Completed in 1908, the Ximen Red House was originally neither a theater nor a cultural landmark, but a public market serving citizens outside Taipei’s Ximen Gate. Comprising an Octagonal Building and a Cross-shaped Building, it once sold flowers, pharmaceuticals, books, and local Taiwanese products. It later became a storytelling venue, theater, and cinema, before entering the system of heritage site adaptive reuse. The most compelling aspect of this building is not its red bricks or octagonal shape, but the fact that it must repeatedly return to people’s daily lives to avoid being preserved as an empty shell. ^{1 2 3}

In 1908, Ximending was not yet the name associated with neon lights, cinemas, and pedestrian crowds. The Xinqi Street Market opened outside Taipei’s Ximen Gate, with an octagonal entrance facing the street and a cross-shaped main body behind it. Those who walked in might have been there to buy groceries, or simply to observe a new type of public architecture. ²

Before that, in 1896, a simple wooden market already existed outside the Ximen Gate. Twelve years later, the government transformed the market into a more fixed and manageable urban facility. The early term "Market Octagonal Hall" did not refer to a heritage site for distant viewing, but to a place that handled transactions, odors, crowds, and order every day. ²

Curator’s Note: The Red House’s first identity was not a cultural landmark, but a way for the city to centrally manage the small act of "shopping." Its later capacity to carry culture did not stem from being designed as a cultural space from the start, but from its continuous connection to people.

Inside the Octagonal Building: A City Engineering Project

The Ximen Red House was designed by Jiro Kondo, then serving in the Architectural Section of the Governor-General’s Office of Taiwan. The Octagonal Building is constructed of red brick, with reinforced concrete floors and a roof featuring a radial steel truss system. These materials and structures make it more than just a "red, photogenic" old house; it is an engineering project that integrated modern construction techniques into a public market. ^{2 4}

The octagonal entrance and cross-shaped main body were not merely for aesthetic造型 (shape). The Ministry of Culture’s facility data interprets this as a combination of the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) and Cross shapes: the former forms the market entrance, while the latter constitutes the main space. Heritage designation documents further note that multi-directional entrances made the market more convenient to use, and the red brick masonry and Fink truss design preserved the construction technology of the time. ^{2 4}

The market once sold flowers, books, pharmaceuticals, Japanese pickles, and Taiwanese local products; during holidays, fabrics and department store goods also entered the premises. This list is important because it reminds us: the Ximen Red House was never a building serving only a specific artistic taste. It was originally a mix of daily necessities, imported goods, local produce, and holiday shopping. ^{2 3}

Today, we tend to separate "market" and "culture" into two distinct domains, but the early life of the Ximen Red House was not so tidy. A market is economic activity and social interaction; it is public health and a place where individuals can encounter one another. A building’s value lies not only in its walls, but in how those walls arrange the proximity between people.

As the City Moves East, the Red House Stays Put

After the war, the Ximen Red House did not immediately become a static historical specimen. It served as a storytelling venue, the Huyuan Theater, and a cinema, absorbing audiences from different eras. The official English historical page describes the 1940s and 1950s as a period when theater and storytelling culture converged, while the 1960s became an entry point for young people to watch films and engage with Western culture. ^{3 5}

This transition was not merely "an old building changing its use." It also reflected the shifting center of Taipei: as commercial and entertainment activities gradually moved eastward, Ximending temporarily lost its central position, and the Red House declined with it. The building did not move, but the city’s attention did. ³

In 1997, the Ximen Red House was announced as a heritage site; repairs were completed the following year. However, the path to revival was not linear. The questions it faced were: Who would use the renovated building? How much would it charge? What activities would it accommodate? The cost of preservation cannot be paid solely by a plaque. ^{2 3}

Curator’s Note: The most dangerous moment for a heritage site is often not the day it is demolished, but the time after renovation when no one comes back. The story of the Ximen Red House is not simply one of "successful preservation," but of preservation that must constantly withstand the tests of daily life.

Adaptive Reuse Is Not Just Renting Out an Old House

In 2002, the Paper Windmill Cultural and Educational Foundation invested in reconstructing the historical site of the Red House Theater. In 2007, the Taipei Foundation for Arts and Culture took over operations. Official data and the Ximen Red House English historical page view this period as a key moment of repositioning: the market building was integrated into a network of arts performances, creative markets, and the development of the Ximending district. ^{2 3 5}

There is a frequently overlooked distinction here. Heritage adaptive reuse is not about clearing out an old house and stuffing it with a few new shops; it is about ensuring that new uses do not erase the original history. The Octagonal Building, Cross-shaped Building, and North-South Plaza of the Ximen Red House are placed within a single operational framework. Exhibitions, dining, creative merchandise sales, workshops, and performances are each assigned specific roles while driving foot traffic to one another. ^{2 4}

The Taipei Tourism Network once recorded that one side of the Red House’s Cross-shaped Building developed into a creative market and the Cultural and Creative Development Center, while the other side became a venue for band performances. This arrangement provides creators with a place to sell works and perform, and allows visitors to Ximending to enter the heritage site without first needing to identify themselves as "exhibition audiences." ³

The Ximen Red House official English page also records the 2008 Heritage Building Adaptive Reuse Award, and how weekend craft markets provided opportunities for creative workers and consumers to interact face-to-face. The core of this adaptive reuse is not using young brands to give the old building a new face, but allowing the building to once again become a place where exchange occurs. ⁵

In 2024, the Ximen Red House introduced another element to this history: a red fox named "Hongfu" (Red Fortune) appeared in an exhibition, serving as a bridge between heritage tours and contemporary creative culture. A TVBS report noted that Hongfu was designed as a character embodying the architectural imagery of the Ximen Red House, allowing audiences to get to know the building through an approachable image without first needing to read through a century of history. ⁶

The significance of Hongfu lies not in adding a cute mascot to the heritage site, but in demonstrating another form of preservation: translating the building’s history, beliefs, and structural clues into a language that people today are willing to approach. Thus, the heritage site not only preserves the past but begins to learn how to meet the next generation of audiences.

One Building, Three Values That Are Difficult to Simultaneously Realize

The first is the value of cultural assets. The National Cultural Heritage Network lists the Ximen Red House as a直辖市 (municipal) heritage site, citing reasons such as witnessing Taipei’s urban development in the early Japanese colonial period, preserving the history of market life, and retaining red brick, terrazzo, steel trusses, and contemporary construction techniques. ²

The second is the value of public use. The current Ximen Red House retains functions for performances, dining, creative merchandise, and markets. It is not a building that opens only on specific commemorative days, but one that continuously places strangers, creators, tourists, and nearby districts on the same circulation path. ^{1 4}

The third is the value of operation. A 2025 study used the Ximen Red House as a case to discuss how heritage sites can balance cultural and commercial values through outsourcing contracts and "co-production" relationships, after both pure commercialization and non-profit operations have potentially failed. This perspective pulls the heritage site away from beautiful architectural photographs and back to the reality of governance and responsibility allocation. ⁷

Another study using Taipei municipal heritage shops as a case reminds us that shops within a heritage site should not be mere commercial spaces; they must become an extension of the heritage structure itself, with product displays, business models, and audience experiences linked to the cultural significance of the place. ⁸

Therefore, the success of the Ximen Red House cannot be measured solely by "high foot traffic." Crowds can keep a building alive, or they can simply turn the building into a backdrop. The true difficulty lies in ensuring that crowds leave behind some understanding: that this place was once a market, that there is urban engineering within the red brick walls, and that a market may also be part of cultural policy.

Curator’s Note: The best new use for a heritage site is not to make it look as if it has never changed, but to allow people to see that it has changed, without thereby losing its origin.

The Next Question for the Ximen Red House

Today, the Ximen Red House appears to be a place that has already found answers: the Octagonal Building is a landmark, the Cross-shaped Building houses shops and activities, and the plaza can accommodate markets and performances. Yet research continues to discuss it precisely because "revitalization" is not a one-time project, but a relationship that every administrator and every group of users must renegotiate. ^{7 8}

Commerce brings revenue but may also reduce the heritage site to a mere consumption shell; cultural activities bring meaning but may fail to sustain themselves due to a lack of stable resources. These two directions are not naturally harmonious; they must be bound together through contracts, management, design, and public oversight. The history of the Ximen Red House does not prove that all heritage sites can be successfully revitalized, but provides a case study that can be examined. ⁷

Next time you walk past No. 10 Chengdu Road, do not rush to photograph the Octagonal Building. Try to imagine the 1908 market entrance, the post-war storytelling venue, the 1960s cinema, and the space after renovation waiting for its next use. You will find that what the Ximen Red House truly preserved is not the appearance of any single era, but the ability of Taipei people to repeatedly bring public life back.

It was originally a market. It is still a market today, only the things being exchanged have changed: from fruits, vegetables, pharmaceuticals, and fabrics to works, performances, memories, and a city’s willingness to let old buildings continue to participate in today’s answers.

Further Reading

Ximending: From the Margins of Monga to Taipei’s Brightest Street

Taiwan Architecture: From Market to Urban Landscape

References