Many people hold an ancestral home filled with memories in their hearts, perhaps a traditional sanheyuan courtyard house left by their grandparents, a doctor’s residence, or even a town mayor’s mansion. Yet when facing spaces that have deteriorated over time and need restoration, homeowners often feel lost, thinking the future of old houses seems limited to only three options: urban renewal, reconstruction, or demolition. To this, ‘Smile Taiwan’ Podcast host Li Pei-shu raised the question: ‘What are the challenges of repurposing old houses in Taiwan?’

In reality, Taiwan has no shortage of skilled architects, construction teams, restoration techniques, or rigorous regulations—director Hsiao Ting-hsiung points out that the real challenge lies in the lack of imagination for giving new life to old houses. For this reason, ever since its establishment, the X-Basic team has been dedicated to ‘joining forces collectively’ by inviting more professionals to participate and by matching old houses with operators from different fields to move in. This allows old houses not only to be restored but also to retain their original spatial details, transforming into offices, rental suites, dessert shops or yoga studios, coexisting with new buildings in diverse forms: ‘Aging is not a problem, but rather a process of giving the city its distinctive flavor through ‘maturation.’

Lukang’s Chang-Yuan Hospital is the practical result of this belief. The X-Basic team established the Old House Hospital here, providing consultation services for homeowners across Taiwan. Utilizing the space’s own cross-era characteristics, they comprehensively display restoration techniques for buildings and replicas from different periods spanning from the Qing Dynasty, Japanese rule period, and to the post-war period. They also propose various regeneration inspirations based on multi-layered structures. Their spatial narrative is embodied in every operational detail—from a replica of a aiyu jelly molded after photographer Hsu Tsang-tse’s favorite camera, to pastries incorporating elements from the building’s decorative carvings, and to Chinese-Western tea sets designed in continuation of the architectural style—all are thoughtful translations of historical textures into contemporary experiences, making each visit an opportunity to dialogue with the old house.

This systematic thinking that extends from single-point restoration to ecosystem construction is fully documented in X-Basic ‘s recent publication ‘Beyond Aged’. Directly based on the countless challenges and lesson the team has faced, this book centers on ‘how can old houses continue to live well,’ hoping to become a practical guide for practitioners. Therefore, the book doesn’t just feature cases familiar to the public, but focuses more on presenting the rejuvenation processes of old houses from different eras, uses, and operational models—whether private residences, public buildings, or corporate spaces, all can find paths to new life that reflect each other in the book.

In addition to the podcast conversation, this autumn issue of ‘Smile Taiwan’ also incorporates the X-Basic team’s philosophy between its pages through two feature reports. Back in August, when the summer heat was at its peak, the Smile Taiwan team visited Lukang’s Chang-Yuan Hospital to interview Honorary Director Dr. Hsu Cheng-yuan and X-Basic team’s Director Hsiao Ting-hsiung. Thank you very much to the editorial team for their dedication, reflecting the life story of the building through their reporting perspective, and distilling the team’s long-standing methodology.

‘Small Town’s New Landmark: Making Stories and Houses Age Like Fine Wine’ narrates how Chang-Yuan Hospital transformed from a private residence and local clinic into a cultural hub: this includes how the X-Basic team encountered this old house, why they asked the current owner Hsu Cheng-yuan to redefine the name of each room, and how they integrated past needs with present considerations to preserve the authentic living trajectory of the century-old clinic. Through the phased opening of the “Warmth Project,” Chang-Yuan Hospital’s rebirth has become an ongoing process of community resonance, where memories of past and present intersect, making the space a shared cultural heritage for town’s residents.