Guava Books

This building was constructed in the 10th year of the Showa era (1935). The building is divided into two sections: the front and the rear. The facade of the front section features exposed bricks and cement-framed wooden windows, highlighting the architectural characteristics of the era while conveying a sense of warmth and friendliness. The front section has a wooden structure and a red brick first floor. The facade walls on both sides of the front elevation are built with red bricks, with a cement plaster finish and white paint, which was a common architectural style of the time.

The stairs, floorboards, roof, and doors and windows on the second-floor loft are all constructed with wood. The first four steps of the staircase are made of brick (with a cement plaster finish), while the fifth step and above are wooden. The staircase corner is built with brick, allowing the wooden staircase to be a straight line, simplifying the construction of the wooden staircase and adding clever variations to the space. The second-floor decking consists of wooden trusses made from willow and pine wood, with five-inch cypress wooden boards laid on top. To prevent insect damage and moisture, the surface is painted. The exterior facade features a cement plaster finish with three wooden windows, creating a simple and open facade that reflects the architectural structure and material characteristics of the main building.

The floor plan of the building consists of a two-story front section and a single-story rear section. The two sections are connected by an open courtyard and a (kitchen) restroom, with a one-story sloped-roof entrance porch specifically placed in front of the rear section to emphasize the entrance position. This arrangement allows natural light into the rear section while the open courtyard serves as an important ventilation conduit. Therefore, the building’s spaces have good lighting and ventilation, avoiding the common issues of insufficient light and poor ventilation found in traditional street houses, while also adding spatial variation and sophisticated planning.

The south wall of the rear section is made of earth-pressed brick, not using bamboo-woven mud walls, which suggests construction before the earthquake on April 21, 1935 (the Dungzikao earthquake). The overall space mixes earth bricks and red bricks. The sloping roof of the building, higher in the front and lower in the rear, along with the platform of the open courtyard, also outlines the building’s distinctive appearance and skyline.