Address : No.10, Chengdu Rd., Wanhua District, Taipei City
The Red House, a Western-style red-brick octagonal structure in Taipei’s Ximen space built in 1908, is Taiwan’s first public market and the most well preserved historical site. Designed by Kondo Juro, a western-styled architect in the prefectural civil engineering office at the time, the market entrance, incorporating both octagonal and cruciform shapes, was paralleled by no other in the east and west. The market entrance also took on the “eight trigrams (bagua)” design considered boldly creative then. Octagon Building, Cruciform Building, and the adjacent South-North Square are now collectively known as the Red House.
In November, 2007, Department of Cultural Affairs commissioned Taipei Culture Foundation to manage The Red House. It underwent a series of cultural transformation including: at Octagon Building 2F Theater, Central Display Area, The Red House Tea Shop, The Red House Select Shop, at Cruciform Building 16 Workshops, Cultural Arts Exhibition Platform, Riverside Live House, Market for Artists & Designers located by North Square and Outdoor Café located by South Square. These changes provided better services to the general public, created a space of creativity, attracted crowds, and expanded the domain of overlapping cultural arts. The Red House has successfully transformed into a new cultural & creative industries development center in Taipei City. In 2008, it was awarded The 7th Urban Landscape Award in Historical Space Redevelopment Category.