The race is on to position serviced offices as hip co-working spaces, but questions remain about the sustainability of market demand. The Executive Centre in Taipei’s Nanshan Plaza feels like a lounge on the club floor of a five-star hotel. Office workers dressed to impress chat casually, seated on quirky designer furniture. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer…
A growing number of companies in Taiwan – local and international alike – are moving toward more flexible configurations in their office spaces. The open or flexible office design is not a new concept in Taiwanese workplaces, but it has been catching on with rapid enthusiasm in recent years. Multinational corporations with a presence in…
In the process of becoming an innovative industrial design hub, Taiwan has had to quietly overcome entrenched ideas about a perceived lack of creativity. A focus on innovation and style is transforming Taiwan into a center for post-industrial design. Local design talents work behind the scenes to create cutting-edge electronic products for the world’s major…
In the latest of a series of articles in TOPICS this year reflecting Taipei’s selection as the 2016 World Design Capital, six leading practitioners reflect on the role of designers and the state of the profession in Taiwan. By Samantha Kong & Nina Sheridan Ray Chen – Interior Design Ray Chen has gained a reputation…
Steeped in the contract-manufacturing ethos, companies still often fall short in their bid to become global brands. Just half a decade ago, HTC was riding high as a proud example of a Taiwan company that had succeeded in establishing its brand among the world’s top makers of handsets. But the Taoyuan-based manufacturer has lost 90%…
Architecture Award for Changhua HSR Station The Changhua High Speed Rail station in central Taiwan won the U.S.-based Architizer’s A-plus Award in the bus and train stations category on April 12, beating out more than 100 submissions from around the world, including the Netherland’s Arnhem Central Masterplan and Delft Station, Austria’s Vienna Central Station, and…
Companies are relying on designers to help them achieve product differentiation and enhance competitiveness. In an effort to create innovative and more valuable products, Taiwanese companies have been making ever greater investments in industrial design. Spearheaded by some of Taiwan’s top companies and research centers, the effort is already paying off, earning the island accolades…
Major advances have taken place in the sector in just the past few decades. The opening of the National Palace Museum Southern Branch in December last year brought President Ma Ying-jeou and a host of other dignitaries to Taiwan’s southwestern city of Chiayi, in a celebration of Asian culture. Aboriginal singers and a dragon dance…
One is high culture, the other grassroots. But the architecture of both Kris Yao and Huang Sheng-yuan represents the emergence of an original Taiwan sensibility. Kris Yao Artech “One thing that is very important in architecture is locality. The design of any piece of architecture can only stand on one certain spot on the…
As this year’s “World Design Capital,” Taipei aims to forge a new, forward-looking image. Designated the “2016 World Design Capital” by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID),Taipei has embarked on a comprehensive initiative to mark this year by instilling design elements into numerous aspects of urban life. “The WDC project aims…
