Bouwen aan een katholiek architecturaal landschap in Taiwan (1945-1970)

This dissertation investigates the development of Catholic church architecture in Taiwan from 1945 to 1970, arguing that the rapid proliferation of churches during this period was not spontaneous but the result of a highly structured, top-down spatial governance led by the Vatican, shaped through diocesan planning and missionary strategies. In just two decades, the Catholic Church in Taiwan transitioned from a missionary territory into a network of seven dioceses and more than 600 churches, forming a cohesive and institutionally governed religious landscape. Unlike existing studies that focus on the artistic or symbolic value of individual churches, this research adopts a broader analytical lens to examine how church buildings functioned both as sacred spaces and as tools of institutional expansion. By doing so, it highlights the complex interplay between religious authority, political context, and local adaptation. The study employs an interdisciplinary methodology combining archival research, field surveys, and in-depth interviews. Due to the limited availability of official church records from the post-war period, the researcher relied on archival sources from religious congregations such as the Franciscans, Maryknollers, and Jesuits. Fieldwork conducted between 2019 and 2022 covered over 100 churches across all seven dioceses in Taiwan. These investigations documented church names, locations, architectural typologies, and were complemented by 24 interviews with clergy and laypeople to reconstruct construction histories and community involvement. Three major findings emerge. First, distinct spatial strategies were adopted by different religious orders, shaped by their internal operational logics—for instance, the Jesuits in Hsinchu favored decentralized expansion, while the Franciscans prioritized churches near railways for logistical convenience. Second, the Catholic church landscape reveals a spatial hierarchy, ranging from cathedrals that embodied episcopal authority to parish churches that served as missionary nodes. Each layer reflects Vatican models of ecclesiastical governance and contextual localization policies. Third, the study identifies five architectural modes of localization: climatic adaptation, use of traditional and folk symbols, appropriation of landmark vocabularies, incorporation of local crafts, and community-based building processes. Although stylistic localization remained limited in the early post-war years, authentic forms of localization emerged through participatory construction, vernacular methods, and devotional practices. The dissertation concludes that localization should not be narrowly defined by stylistic "Sinicization," but rather understood as a contextual, adaptive, and empowering process rooted in lived religious experience. By framing Taiwan's Catholic churches as a religious landscape shaped by institutional logic and local agency, the study contributes a fresh perspective to the spatial history of global Catholicism. It affirms that religious space is not only a reflection of belief, but also a medium through which governance, culture, and mission interact and take form.