Matang Indigenous Tribal Gathering Place

About The Entry

The building covers an area of approximately 900 square meters and serves as a community center for the Amis Matang tribe in Taiwan.

To showcase the cultural characteristics of the Amis tribe, the exterior of the building uses red, black, and white, which are common colors in traditional Amis clothing.

The building’s floor plan is a regular nonagon, allowing the Amis people to form a circle and perform traditional dances during annual festivals. The roof of the nonagon is elevated at three corners at the eaves, facing the sunrise (the highest deity) and the place where the tribal elders have lived for years, forming the overall shape of the building.

In Amis culture, there are very strict age group regulations, originating from the tribe’s founding myth, which consists of three age groups. This gives the number “3” a special cultural significance. In response to the building’s shape and age groups, the building uses three sets of special red structures for support.

In Taiwan, the clothing, buildings, and communities of various indigenous tribes often feature many totems, symbolizing different cultural meanings. The Amis believe that the sun is the greatest deity in the world and that they are the children of the ocean, so the building uses sun and wave totems. When arranging the totems, the sun totem is placed at the center of the building’s ground, with the wave totems surrounding the sun totem, and the Matang tribe’s totem is placed at the main entrance of the building.

In indigenous cultural beliefs, the deceased do not disappear but become spirits that continue to care for the tribe. This project places the totem of the ancestral spirit’s eye on the roof of the building, symbolizing that the deceased still stand at the center of the tribe, continuing to care for the community.