How government-funded projects have revitalized historic streetscapes - Two cases in Taiwan

The challenging work of revitalization of historic streetscapes has become a significant item on the urban planning agenda. In recent years there have been funding projects from three ministries of the government of Taiwan to support local cities' development. Through the residents' and visitors' evaluation of two historic streetscapes in Taiwan, this paper assesses the achievements and problems arising from the projects, and it has also compared these with the conservation plans used in other Asian cities. In the metropolis of Taipei, conservation has been handled in much the same way as in Singapore. Small cities far from the main development zones were like Hong Kong, preserving the prewar features and life, but not easily designated as conservation areas. The result shows that the central government's permissive approach to historical preservation, not requiring a stop to new development, has brought favorable conditions for the preservation and revitalization of small cities, although the government projects did not take streetscape preservation as their main purpose and still need to be refined.