Guomao Cylinder Community

13 cylindrical apartment towers built in the 1980s for military families

A cluster of 13 round, beige apartment towers near Cianjhen, an unusual surviving piece of 1980s Taiwanese social housing. Each tower has thirteen storeys; on each floor a single circular corridor connects sixteen wedge-shaped apartments around a central lift core.

The towers are not formally a tourist attraction but the courtyards between them have small shrines, communal gardens and old residents sitting out in the afternoons. Photographers and architecture enthusiasts will appreciate the sheer oddness of the cluster. Best seen from the southern approach where all 13 towers are visible at once.

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The 13 round towers were built in 1985 to rehouse mainland Chinese military veterans and their families who had previously lived in shanties along the harbour. The cylindrical shape — unusual for residential blocks — was chosen to maximise the floor area on the awkward triangular plot. The community is still 90% retired-military and their descendants.

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