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Friday, November 7, 2008

Architecture The Beauty of Desertion

Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 12:26 PM

Welcome to the dead dreams of San Zhi.
Picture%201.jpg

This future appeared outside of Taipei, Taiwan, in the early 1980s.

Ghosts offer one explanation for San Zhi's failure...

The speculation about why the site was abandoned varies, with the most interesting being that a series of fatal accidents occurred during construction, causing locals to believe the site was haunted, and therefore instigating the developer’s decision to stop construction (and also putting a stop to any future redevelopment).

This town has always been a ghost town.

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Comments (12) RSS

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I love this "World Without Us" type pictures and places.

Posted by Solo on November 7, 2008 at 12:33 PM

if they believe in ghosts, they weren't ready to live in modernism.

Posted by max solomon on November 7, 2008 at 12:34 PM

Why are posting this again? Didn't you already cover this about 2 mths ago?

Posted by young jung on November 7, 2008 at 12:37 PM

If each building was going to be multiple units, their lack of common walls has me envious. To bad they never came to fruition.

Posted by Dougsf on November 7, 2008 at 12:40 PM

@3: Have you even known Chas to *not* repeat the same idea ad infinitum?

Posted by Matthew on November 7, 2008 at 12:44 PM

I want to live there, and pretend I'm a character from J.G. Ballard's Vermillion Sands stories.

Posted by dr_awesome on November 7, 2008 at 1:08 PM

Scoob and the gang will crack this case wide open!

Posted by jackie treehorn on November 7, 2008 at 1:13 PM

What, no making fun of these backwards hicks believing in ghosts? If anyone deserves it, they do. What, are they like the Asian versions of Shaggy and Scooby? "ZOINKS! A g-g-g-g-g-ghost!"

Posted by P to the J on November 7, 2008 at 1:13 PM

@5-good point.

Posted by young jung on November 7, 2008 at 1:22 PM

Perfect.

Posted by yelahneb on November 7, 2008 at 1:44 PM

Reminds me of the 64-65 World's Fair in Queens. My friends and I used to go bike riding there and walk around all the trashed buildings like the U.S. Paillion...lots of fiberglass panels and left over exhibits with titles like "Peace Through Radiation"

Posted by John Bailo on November 7, 2008 at 1:47 PM

I've seen this place, and when I asked locals about it, they told me that "only ghosts live in round houses." Something to do with ghosts being able to be stuck in corners or something. I'm no expert. Ghosts are taken pretty seriously here in Taiwan. Most people believe in them, or at least most people I've spoken to.

Posted by Mike McCool on November 8, 2008 at 4:15 AM