“Fictional Garden: Taiwan House”: Building Friendship Through Design, Passing On Flowers And Blessings

The “Fictional Garden: Taiwan House” Japan Tour was held from October 2nd to November 7th at Good Design Marunouchi in Tokyo and The Terminal KYOTO in Kyoto, featuring exciting exhibition and six thematic seminars that took both Taiwan and Japan by storm.

Executed by Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI), the exhibition encapsulated the theme of ‘flowers’ symbolizing the friendship between Taiwan and Japan, summing up Taiwan design’s three main spirits of “resource integration,” “social application,” and “response to the time.”

The exhibition invited 8 Taiwanese design teams and creative professionals in various disciplines, including Joe Fang Studio, PiliWu-Design, emerging craft designer Chang Chia-ling, floral designer Liao Hao-jhe, artist Mia Liu, graphic designer An Yen, and fashion brands Angus Chiang and Melted Potato, to create with sustainable materials of Spring Pool Glass and Miniwiz that strive for green projects, translating Taiwan’s imagery of plantation and displaying the splendid fruits of Taiwan design’s diverse cooperation.

(The exhibition invited 8 Taiwanese creative professionals from different disciplines to produce new creative works using sustainable materials)

 

The exhibition also selected 10 cases or exhibits of different topics, which included projects that displayed Taiwan’s liberal system and culture and combined design with social issues, such as: Design Movement on Campus, Public Digital Space Division, Light Up Taiwan, and Go Grandriders; smart pandemic prevention ward and sustainable products that conveyed Taiwan’s philosophy of circular sustainability and response to the time; Allrover that demonstrated Taiwanese industries’ strengths in resource integration and innovation.

The spatial design also used “flower” as the core concept, exploring what a garden that belonged to Taiwan would look like. Focusing on “circular materials,” “industrial technology,” and “traditional techniques,” the space constructed display platforms symbolizing western Taiwan, the Central Mountain Range, and the East Rift Valley, showcasing works that echoed the plants and cultural patterns of the island’s diverse climates.

(Taiwan’s imagery of plantation are translated through design to display the current status of Taiwan’s design ecosystem that is free, diverse, thriving, and unbounded.)

 

With TDRI’s long friendship with Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP), Taiwan House was able to make its first stop at GOOD DESIGN Marunouchi, at the heart of Tokyo near Tokyo Station. Works by Taiwanese designers were showcased at the modern, clean venue with large windows, giving Taiwan’s Fictional Garden a refreshing and avant-garde ambience.

The exhibition made its next stop at The Terminal Kyoto, a traditional Japanese “machiya” (wooden townhouse) with a history of nearly a century that was full of traditional cultural spirit and carried imprints of local lifestyle. The curator used the vocabulary of space, rearranging layout and constructing traffic flow, to manifest under the same framework of contents the tender and flexible, and adaptive and agile cultural qualities of Taiwan, giving Fictional Garden a brand-new look.

(The exhibition made its first stop at GOOD DESIGN Marunouchi near Tokyo Station, displaying the look of “Taiwan’s Garden of the Future – Fictional Garden.”)

 

The fragrance that filled the exhibition space was the smell imprint of the treasure island of Taiwan reinterpreted by P.Seven Taiwan Tea Perfume founder Pan on the foundation of Taiwan’s forest, temples, and tea culture designed to be the exclusive fragrance of Taoyuan International Airport Corporation. The fragrance allowed visitors of “Taiwan House” to breathe and feel the unique features of Taiwan design, leaving “profound impressions of Taiwan” through a unique experience of all senses.

Not only were there physical exhibitions of “Fictional Garden: Taiwan House” available in Tokyo and Kyoto, exciting Taiwan-Japan online forums were also planned in correspondence with the exhibition themes. The forums proposed six themes: #Social Innovation, #Sustainable Industry, #Public Design, #Regional Revitalization, #Old Building Revitalization, and #Co-Working Symbiosis.

(Works of creative professionals displayed at an ancient architecture in Kyoto to showcase the perfect cultural fusion of Taiwan and Japan.)

 

Through the perspective of design, and different viewpoints of Taiwan and Japan, the forums explored the relationship between citizens and social policies, how designers could drive industrial revitalization, how industries could strike a balance between development and environmental protection, and designers’ mission and social influences, allowing participants from both sides to further understand cultural, industrial, social, and temporal demands and search for core values of future design and innovation, while also strengthening the friendship between Taiwan and Japan. The six forums attracted over 700 citizens from both Taiwan and Japan.

(P.Seven Taiwan Tea Perfume is the exclusive fragrance of the exhibition, allowing visitors to also breathe in Taiwan in addition to perceiving the island through their eyes and ears.)

 

Source: Taiwan Design Research Institute