First Few Days in Taiwan

Days: 3/21

Teas: 8

Day 1

For my first day in Taiwan I was on a mission to have as much oolong tea as possible, both because it is my favorite tea and because my jet lag was terrible. I also wanted to start collecting design references to build up my personal reference library before our first design brief. Happy to say I was successful on both accounts. 

I ordered an amazing Taiwanese tea infused latte and made a highly anticipated return to 7/11 for a cold bottle of oolong. On the wall barrier around the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall I took photos of some very fun decorative window grates, of which there were at least 20 distinct patterns. I also went to the National Taiwan Museum and saw lots of preserved specimens of species endemic to the island, my favorite being the Formosan Sika deer which is also how I learned that Formosa tea is referring to Taiwanese tea from the Portuguese name for Taiwan “Ilha Formosa” or “Beautiful Island”.

Day 2

As a start to my day I explored the interesting Taiwanese-western  mix of the hotel breakfast and to wake up had a coffee latte from the machine mixed with the caramel milk tea from the dispenser which felt appropriately representative. 

We then met the NTU students and I was excited to learn there was a variety of different disciplines represented from engineering to literature to accounting. Group work is always more exciting when everyone has a different background. 

As a  group we went to Dot Design, a design company focused on using recycled and natural materials, and learned about their client history and product portfolio. The materials used ranged from pineapple fiber to recycled children playground equipment plastic to old roofing tile from a historic Taipei building. My favorite was a project where 10 designers each made a lucky cat inspired gashapon toy made from recycled plastic to offer a forward looking solution to the fact that most gashapon toys are made with non-recyclable plastic. 

After we braved the rain to walk around the historic Dadaocheng where we learned that all of the shops were long and skinny because they were taxed based on the width of the front of the space. It reminded me of Amsterdam where the buildings have lots of windows because the owners were taxed per window and they wanted to show off their wealth, another situation where tax codes dictated form. I got an osmanthus tea infused coffee and then immediately after got a longan leaf oolong tea to once again defend against jetlag.

Day 3

The Taiwan Design Research Institute may be one of my favorite buildings ever as a converted tobacco factory with old style windows, wooden sliding panel doors, and tons of space to display design exhibits, design award entries like Red Dot and Golden Pin, and even a mini Tsutaya. Tsutaya is one of my favorite stores from Japan and the design process for their stores was catalogued in an edition of B Magazine which is a great read. 

TDRI has 220 employees with 40 just for research and we got to hear about their mission and purpose as an incubator for eventual self-sustaining design bodies in Taiwan and the promotion of design as a form of cultural power. Their portfolio was extensive and impressive, and it was interesting to me that large parts of their funding came from the government as a form of investing in the economy because that type of initiative is lacking in my own country. 

We collectively made a pair of recycled plastic sunglasses at the Trash Kitchen which had the typical melded-color-with-flecks look that recycled plastic objects have and it occurred to me that style has become more acceptable over the years as it became more common. It was something I used to associate with the granola aesthetic only.

We went to Eslite Spectrum to check out the Chengpin Life Expo Eslite X Platform store where I bought some very fun gold fish tea bags while admiring the commercial designs. I then had a milk tea from 50 Lan to power me up for brainstorming with the NTU students.