Dajia Train Station is one of the oldest transport hubs in Taiwan. After the highway and high speed rail had been built, it reduced the prominence of Dajia’s station. Taking the train to Dajia became a special event or holiday choice.

Every year Dajia hosts the Mazu Festival in its temple, honoring one of the most important goddesses in Taiwan, attracting over 100,000 spectators per year. On regular basis, over 5,000 believers per day comes to the temple to pray for well-beings of themselves and their loved ones. Over the years, Dajia has developed cottage industries of various religions products.  

Dajia has three different kind of business: religion, light industry, and education. This gives the town a variety of social groups. From field research, I found there are 4 different active social groups - locals, tourists, labourers, and foreign teachers. The local street culture has shifted from unified to more diversified style.  

The proposal was to introduce street culture into a new train station and combinable plaza while presenting the religious cottage industry. The spontaneous and unorganized character of the streets does not fit into conventional urban planning, so there is a strong demand for a new type of facility. It was important that this project also maintained the spirit of the town by demonstrating the most important local industry, religion, into the new design for the station.The new design for the train station is not only a transport facility, but also a new social icon!