About Us
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Our Mission
The Toad Hill Settlement is located south of the Taipei Basin, and its history sheds light on the development of the Gongguan area during Qing Dynasty Rule. Due to its proximity to Liugongjun, the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute was located here during Japanese Rule and became an important hub for the agriculture of Taiwan. Japanese government offices and staff accommodation gradually appeared in the area, and after the Nationalist Government relocated to Taiwan, it was prized for its topography and strategic value, and the Air Force Combat Command (currently the ROC Air Force Combatant Command), led to a series of military facilities and military scenery, as well as Huanmin New Village. Military dependents who were not allocated accommodations took matters into their own hands and built houses around the hill, resulting in the unique scenery of coexisting government accommodations, monitored military dependents’ villages, and self-built houses.
In 2000, part of the land became the designated space for building schools due to urban planning, and Huanmin New Village faced the crisis of being torn down. Residents and other forces united and organized a series of preservation movements to protect their memories of life in the region. In 2016, the Taipei City Government listed Toad Hill as a cultural landscape, with 39 buildings of Huanmin New Village listed under preservation. Repairs gradually commenced in 2017, and Toad Hill Living Room opened to the public in 2020.
Huanmin New Village, which is located next to the hills, includes a variety of different spaces. The area became a gathering place for military dependents and later for people from rural and urban settings and international students, as well as different languages, customs, and food cultures. As a result, the region is undergoing construction, deconstruction, and innovation to this day. After years of citizen participation, the community has a high awareness of cultural preservation and has become a hub for “showcasing history through the community.” The unique traits of the area, including ecology, community construction, education, and architecture, have traced the history of the military dependents’ village, preserved the mutual help mechanism of the neighborhood, and incorporated natural resources to enable environmental learning, positioning Huanmin New Village into a sustainable hilltop side military dependents’ village and a model for all military dependents’ villages in the hilltop areas of Taipei, enriching the culture and memory of the South Taipei area.
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Our Goal and Vision
Based on the core values of the Toad Hill culture scene, “ecology, agriculture, settlement, immigration,” the four operational directions of Toad Hill Huanmin New Village are listed below to fulfill the vision of “developing a new sustainable military dependents’ settlement for people and the ecology.”
- Developing low-mountain ecology learning experiences
- Creating urban food and agricultural education
- Constructing a community network that is inclusive to both the young and the elderly
- Promoting the Preservation and Creation of Military Dependents’ village culture
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Our Team
The Taipei Culture Foundation Military Dependents’ Village Department took over operational affairs in 2021, and the goal of the first stage was the restoration of the “Toad Hill Lobby,” while special exhibitions “My 11.57-m²-Home” (2021-2022) and “Houses on the Waterside ” (2022-2023), the woodwork repairment team, Read South Taipei Series, Inclusivity Agricultural Project for Youths and the Elderly , the military dependents village broadcasting station, and various education promotional events. These events are all designed to encourage the rebirth of the settlement through community collaboration.