16 世紀之後，台灣曾是多元族群頻繁互動的舞台，外來政權企圖掌控與利用土地資源，嘗試建構特殊型態的邊界建築—望樓，來界定與防禦邊界。由於，望樓的高挑、居高臨下，具有監控周遭環境的支配性，在聚落與領域邊界形成特殊的視覺景觀。由史料可知在現代文明進入台灣之前，望樓曾經廣布全台，同時，該類構造物也曾經是原住民聚落中重要的建築元素。但是，到底何因素形塑了這樣的形式、功能與構造，後來為何又消失無蹤？本文試圖透過前人研究外來政權與原住民間之關係的基礎，謹慎重構史料，企圖建構台灣近四百年來望樓建築形式及其轉化過程，發現其形制與轉化正清晰反映外來政權與原住民間關係的改變。台灣望樓原僅存於原住民聚落邊境。當外來政權進入、為保護移民，始建隔離之土牛溝，惟易遭破壞，乃於1745年開始於秋冬增建臨時的簡易木竹望樓守望。1766年之後因移民漸增原住民領地被拓墾加劇，促使雙方關係緊張，乃改築固定的高大火磚望樓，成為長期守望、制度化的邊防措施—隘勇線，1825年之後卻因官員徇私等因素促使制度敗壞，轉由移民墾隘團體自建簡易木竹望樓。然而，當外來政權再次轉換時，當權者雖也建蓋簡易望樓，卻已轉為商業利益與墾民無關；當原住民領地緊縮、內外衝突加劇，加上工業革命後技術精進，即全面採用文明武器，強化邊防並圍堵原住民，望樓高大堅固與否已不重要。在圍堵成功、全面領台後，邊界建築已無實存意義，望樓也隨之消失。

Since 16th century, many alien groups had cultivated Taiwan. They had tried to build special construction to define their borders. Some of them had gone through a special type of architectural structure – watchtower. Which was an important spatial element in aboriginal settlements, hence had been usually among the tallest and the most spectacled constructions in a tribal village. Literature suggested that watchtowers had distributed widely in Taiwan before the introduction of modern civilizations. What factor had shaped the Variety form, function and construction of watchtowers? Through carefully reconstructed historic materials, we suggest that the transformation of watchtower architecture in Taiwan is a direct and clear reflection of the changing power relationships between alien regime and aborigines in the study period. Originally, watchtowers had only distributed in tribal villages. Soon after arrival of alien regime, the conquer build “Tu-Niu-Gou”(piled-mound and ditch) to separate the aborigines and immigrants, but, since “Tu-Niu-Gou” were easy to destroyed, they built watchtowers for guarding, early watchtowers were built in simple and temporal manner. Later on, the growth of immigrants increased tension with aborigines. The alien regime had to improve watchtowers into taller and stronger brick type. During mid-19th century (1825-1850), because of the collapse of frontier guard system, immigrants had to build watchtowers by themselves. 1985with the coming of new alien regime, watchtowers were rebuilt in simple & temporal form mainly for commercial purpose. However, with the introduction of modern defensive devices, watchtowers gradually lost their function and were abandoned. When Taiwan was fully controlled by alien regime, borders & watchtower disappeared accordingly.