The Nachichang Apartment complex was the first high-rise apartment complex in Taipei City. This paper details some of the life stories of the residents of Nachichang Apartments and how their living environment impacted their life course. This paper argues that there are four reasons for the formation of the particular living environment in Nachichang Apartments. First, the architecture was a set precondition because of which the residents needed to perform various actions. Second, as most residents were urban migrants, their shared experience of settling in cities and their understanding of the difficulties involved created flexible values that allowed others to build an addition in shared spaces. Residents’ life experiences before they immigrated to Taipei provided shared cultural vocabularies of arranging their living environment. Third, the low cost house modifications by the craftsmen living in Nachichang Apartments or by people part of the residents’ human network has also contributed to the living environment. Fourth, the loose housing management rules and related laws have allowed the residents to expand and change their apartments and living spaces according to their own means and wishes.