The highlights from Taiwan Design Week

Last month, Taiwan marked a series of notable design milestones, reaffirming its ongoing commitment to nurturing and showcasing the creative industries on both local and global stages. Organised by the Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI), the second edition of Taiwan Design Week took place at its headquarters in the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, in December 2024, drawing 250,000 visitors.

One of the two flagship exhibitions, ‘The Gateway’ featured 34 local and international participants, exploring innovative artificial intelligence applications in design to address societal challenges. To date, Taiwan remains a dominant force in semiconductor manufacturing, producing over 90 per cent of the world's leading-edge logic chips and two-thirds of AI servers. The region is now expanding its influence in AI software and applications, promoting systematic growth through initiatives like the AI Taiwan Action Plan, which ensures ethical AI development. A regulatory framework for AI governance is also under development, which includes a risk-based approach and accountability mechanisms for AI applications.

The highlights from Taiwan Design Week’s second edition

Curated by Tsung-Yen Hsieh, assistant professor at the Department of Architecture at Tunghai University, the exhibition focuses on three key aspects: manufacturing, experimentation, and inspiration. ‘AI is not a flawless superpower; it needs our emotions and creativity to drive it. Humans have the freedom to make mistakes and experiment, and that is the foundation of design,’ Hsieh says.

‘Project Patching’ by Dimension Plus, a new media art collective based in Taipei and Hong Kong, addresses AI bias by promoting diverse and representative databases through collaborative participation from various regions. By collecting data from different cultural, geographical, and socio-economic backgrounds, the initiative aims to train generative models that enable AI systems to better understand and respond to cultural diversity and inclusivity.

Po-Ching Chou’s kinetic sculpture ‘Infinite Panorama’ blends light, motion, and mechanical dynamics to create a visual performance. Through generative design and AI tools, the artwork produces outcomes based on mathematical patterns, reflecting our understanding of objective facts and their role in shaping collective consciousness in an immersive experience.

A project by Leotek, the ‘Eco-ridge Ecological Lighting’, is the world’s first lighting technology designed from a biological perspective, reducing blue light to under 2 per cent to minimise its impact on ecosystems. Applied in conservation projects like turtle protection in Lanyu and firefly conservation in Matsu, it ensures visual comfort and road safety while protecting wildlife.

Open-sourced for designers, TDRI has launched seven AI-driven design tools, including the Product Data Explorer, which offers over 300,000 product listings and data points from domestic and international e-commerce platforms, along with more than one million user data entries and counting.

‘Building on last year’s theme, “Elastic Bridging”, which highlighted Taiwan’s flexibility and adaptability in the creative industry – traits particularly evident during the pandemic – we are less constrained by tradition or scale, enabling us to respond quickly to rapid changes, and we are agile in approaching challenges with proactive ambition. Moving forward, design should seize this moment to embrace the unknown, boldly experimenting and exploring new possibilities across disciplines in response to the opportunities and challenges presented by AI,’ president of TDRI Chi-Yi Chang notes.

‘The Golden Pin Design Award Exhibition’ (on show until 6 April 2025) showcased 200 projects from 12 countries and regions. A collective direction was evident among local communicators, designers, and architects, who are dedicating their work to designs that improve the wellbeing of their communities and enhance both the built and natural environments, all while advancing technology in a sustainable and regenerative manner.

The Best Spatial Design (Temporary Building) award went to ‘Bridge Cocoon’ by Forest-Wood Archi-Tect. The studio used bamboo architecture to create a poetic lakeside structure. Crafted using the steam-bending technique, the arches were coated with waterproof, weather-resistant paint, giving them a translucent texture and offering pedestrians a cocoon-breaking experience as they cross the bridge.

Another award-winning project in the same category was ‘Reclaimed Archeoscape’ by Atelier Superb, an outdoor installation set in a wheat field. The project transformed reclaimed building scraps into a rectangular structure, exploring how materials, over time, embody the essence of human life and memory, reflecting the marks of urban development and nature’s decline, with textures that define the space.

Morpho Design’s ‘Taipei MRT Zhongshan Station Redesign’ won the Best Integration Design (Urban Planning) award. The new spatial concept optimises the station’s services and equipment, enhancing the user experience since the system’s launch 27 years ago. Services are organised around a central information hub within a ‘boxed’ space, featuring low-maintenance amenities including trash bins, charging stations, bulletin boards, brochure racks, and umbrella stands, all designed by local brand Naknak, with IF Office advancing the graphic information system.

The Best Communication Design (Brand Identity) award recognised Adj Everything’s visual identity for ‘New Taipei Manufacturing @®©’, an exhibition at the New Taipei City Art Museum in late 2023. Curated by DHH Studio and Hu Design, the exhibition highlighted the city’s legacy as an industrial hub and its evolving role in the era of smart manufacturing. Focused on ‘Innovative Craftsmanship’, it showcased how a new generation of craftsmen is shaping the city's future. The symbols ‘@®©’ represent originality, remarkable achievements, and authorship.

Along similar lines, TDRI launched the ‘T22’ revitalisation programme in 2020, addressing local challenges with tailored strategies. In collaboration with Yingge, a ceramics town near Taipei, the programme tackles issues such as talent drain, economic decline, and stagnation through industrial transformation. Its flagship initiative, ‘Open Factory’, reorganised and opened production spaces to introduce knowledge-based tourism. The city is currently hosting the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, featuring works by local and international artists that explore contemporary ceramic art and innovations.

Taiwan Design Research Institute
tdri.org.tw

Golden Pin Design Award 2024 Exhibition
Songshan Cultural and Creative Park
goldenpin.org.tw
Until 6 April 2025

Taiwan Ceramics Biennale
The New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum
en.ceramics.ntpc.gov.tw
Until 6 April 2025