The street houses are different from normal houses. They were in the same pattern (see old house), and the pattern was long and narrow, different from common three-section compounds. For the convenience of business, the inner space was carefully designed. All the buildings contained several types of space as follows.

Shop Front

     Shop front was usually located near the entrance. It is where the shopkeepers do business with customers. The inner furnishing was usually a transaction counter. Some people treated their second floor as a skylight and built a small attic for the storage of commodities and for store owners’ monitoring their employee’s behaviors. This type of shop front still exists on Today’s Jhongshan Road, for example, the fishing net store that we interviewed. (see interviews)

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Warehouse

     We’ve mentioned before that many stores in "No sky" street took the upper space as a warehouse. This kind of design not only made it easier for storekeepers to move the commodities but also took social order into consideration because the social order in Lukang wasn’t good during that time and various kinds of people were active there. Put on the second floor, the commodities were less likely damaged if bandits attacked. Meanwhile, the shop had more space for business without commodities in shop front.

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Dwelling

     Because of the busy business in "No sky" street, there were many people in every store, including the family of store owners, employees and servants. Their dwelling and the hall for deity worship formed the second row of the long street houses. In general, the second row included the hall for deity worship, bedrooms, dining rooms, and kitchens. The second row was connected with the first row and formed a residential and business core. In general, the hall was in the front and the rooms were in the back. To take advantage of the limited space, the second row usually had second floor.

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Working Place

     There are various commodities sold in "No sky" street. Some commodities such as dyed items and Chinese herbs must be processed before they were sold. Because some stores in "No sky" street processed and sold commodities on their own, they usually establish a working space as a plant producing commodities. The herb shop we interviewed, for example, cut their herb in back of the house. Another cloth shop had equipments for dyeing in back of their house. It’s obvious that they used the place as their working space.

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         In addition to the for major space, the street houses in "No sky" street area had many skylights, dormers, wells, and small warehouses. Wells not only provided water for work but also solve the problem of water resource during vagrants’ attack. The street houses were too long, so there had to be some skylights and dormers. Without them, the inner space would be dark. Small warehouse, on the other hand, offered “no sky” businessman a private space for their personal items.

        We can see from the above that the special design of traditional long street houses is different from that of normal residences because long street houses were mainly for business activities. This special spatial design of buildings was due to the fact that the buildings were located on the finest section and every inch of the land had to be used.